EXCERPT: RICK OWENS. MEN'S FALL 2024 - PARIS FASHION WEEK

 

"...I like the Doomsday ethos of Owens's femininity, yet as the clever designer that the is, the masculine maybe seen as determined beacon, appearing to offer a lesson that we must defy our predicament of natures disregard, and our own folly.  And see it through.  But can he do it without instigating more destruction?  Owens Fall 2024 collection offers an ambiguous clue, holding the show at his own house and studio in Paris, as a way of showing humility, and in Owens words, "A respectful move in observance of the barbaric times we are all living through".  The aggressive elements of the Owens past men's shows have been toned down.  In his latest array, the models are more shielded, padded and protected from the world.  In an escapist way.  Despite an illusive counterculture, which is yet to materialize, humanity remains at its 11th hour.  Maybe the true rebellion will not be in defiance, but unplugging and escaping from all this turmoil.  A complete rejection.  Are we brave enough to do it? 

The Fall collection has Owens warping, inflating and exaggerating perspective, utilizing recycled rubber and bondage wear.  Which is an experiment in posthuman and body modification, as least as a fashion aesthetic.  There is a mutated darkness to this collection, to which Owens offers optimism in a newer perspective, by saying that there is a "Utopian hope for someplace better".

Yet, we are already living in a dystopia, but it is feigned with technocrat arrogance that all is well through our digital relays.  Maybe the solution is, as mentioned within Owens modification of aesthetical reality, without plugging into cyberspace.  We just turn it all off.  Crash it.  Reset it.   While wearing a stylized piece from Owens collections, sitting in a park and smiling at a flower.  As oblivion awaits. 

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Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/rick-owens-mens-fall-2024-paris-fashion.html

 (A.Glass 2024)