Rick Owens Fall 2023 - Paris Fashion Week
I've been thinking about Rick Owens Lido, Venice shows that were held at the height of the pandemic in 2020, particularly when Paris became the epicenter of the COVID break out. And Owens and his wife Michèle Lamy retreated to the famous Venice foreshore to which I covered Owens's collections that took place on Lido beach, seeing how doomdayish, more so the women's styles were. Aware that Owens is no stranger to the darker, avant-garde of aesthetics, what struck me in regards to Owens 2020 and 2021 collections was the imprint of his cultish manifestations in representing the oracle, that is of the feminine. When in meditation, holds an intrinsic ability of intuition, heightened when it is graced by manifestations of the occult. She becomes the harbinger of doom, which would be prudent to learn from its instinctive realm. To be aware of the folly of our making, within an unforgiving universe. Yes, we are certainly living in dark times, despite our technological prowess our fraught conditioning and overconfidence is probably going to be our downfall.
Intermixed with Owens witch like oracle collections over the said period, was his men's styles, that offered a more blunt and aggressive take on the masculine, during the pandemic period of 2020/2021 and then with his Spring 2022 men's collection, which was the final of the Lido beachfront shows, paradoxically became a liberating and positive showpiece as Owens's stint in Venice was coming to end and he and Lamy were to return to their home in Paris.
So, there are interesting dualities of a designer who has toyed with the transgressions of life, as a visual show piece seen with his stylizations since 2002. Owens consistency and ability to draw from his own backlog of collections, does indeed show the adeptness of a designer whose earlier roots are from his Los Angeles artfulness. With a history, which I explored, albeit as an article for a fashion magazine in 2020, holds clues to this enigmatic and in someways ambiguity of a fashion designer, who had crafted his own imprint onto an industry without compromise.
But, the passing hopefulness Owens's Spring 2022 men's collection on the beaches of Lido, have returned to his dark embrace. As noted with my women's Fall 2022 review, the hand held smoke machines and overall stygian performance seemed to absorb the avant-garde designer. The men's Spring 2023 collection reaffirmed Owens's take on gloom and excess, which was enhanced by his masculine arrays rather than the female collections; as they continue to hold cult like sibyl prophecies of the end-of-the-world.
However, it is the Fall 2023 collection which is unyielding in its intensity of portraying the male, it feels a lot aggressive and warlike. With models adored in facial corpse paint, exaggerated shoulder pads and knee high boots. which have morphed from the late Larry LeGaspi's influence on Owens's earlier collections, to Owens own take on the combat boot. There is a lot more bondage inspired and dystopian concepts to his Fall styles, with harsher, worn-torn looks, moving away from Owens's more crafted and gothic styles of previous showings. His latest collection reflects very much a militarized imprint, with tactical gloves, flak jackets and protective insulation. Suitable for cities which have become urban battle grounds.
Attire for a society that has already collapsed. Owens's antitheses could be that need to face the destruction. So we can be redefined by it.
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For all my Rick Owens reviews, please refer: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Rick%20Owens
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