Rick Owens. Spring/Summer Mens 2026 - Paris Fashion Week.

 

As noted so many times with my reviews of Rick Owens shows, which began way back in 2013, albeit the more recent reviews of the last Five years, is that he is truly the last of the independent designers, maybe the very last.  Certainly the last of the avant-garde designers, to which he embraced the idealism of avant-garde over postmodernist in the late 1990s, before moving to Paris in 2002 with his wife Michèle Lamy who turned 81 in February of this year.  And this is no doubt Owens has reworked his own Two decade timeline, inside and out, as way of reinvoigtraing, and reinventing his stalwart goth styles, for both the male and female arrays.  Ustiling his beloved structural backdrop the 1930s Art Décor monolith,  Palais de Tokyo, as the staging ground for the many Paris Fashion Weeks, in a mostly respectful, yet at the same time blunt impression, redefining the Parisian landmark which survived World War Two, and the decades of turmoil and unrest that followed, and sits there within its temple like fixture, reminding us all of both mortality and longevity, very much counter to the prefabricated structure and hyperreal world which exists today. 

And ironically, Owens latest showing for Spring/Summer 2026 is titled "Temple", reiterating in a slew of shows since the 2020 pandemic, Owens interest in the esoterica, the oracle, and the foreboding, when turmoil, lead to further turmoil, very much through our flaws to galvanize fears and prejudices as a motivation tool, yet ultimately it becomes self destructive in the end.  Yes, we have entered an era of renewed fascism, which was had been strewing for over Two decades, and now has landed, flattening out society, with many stuck in their loops of repetition, unable to counterculture the impact.  Is there any hope for us?

Owens isn't asking this question, but rather he has supercharged the masculine once again, which has been seen in earlier showings of the past decade, morphing between the vampiric, sobre, withdrawn and self protected male, insulated in layers of padded clothing, to the intensity of the male warrior.  The bare chested rebel, the adventure, aggressive and impulsive, with a dark overlay.  The killer.   Trench coats, leather biker jackets, chains, with tighter, less drapey looks, with styles contouring over muscle and physical energy.  It is not a pretty collection, moving away, as mentioned, from the mysterious antihero, who embraces both the fluidity of masculine and feminine.  The master.  With his latest collection, it very much holds that male impulsiveness, and aimless in his direction.  As models from a scaffolding created walkway, overlooking the  Palais de Tokyo 'pool', descend from ladders into the knee high water, dredging through the watery foundation wearing Owens Spring/Summer 2026 styles.  And  at times submerging themselves, full body into the water, as some ritualized rights-of-passage procession.  With only one of Owens models adorning, now a familiar accessory to Owens models, the aphotic contact lenses, and offering a more of mysterious stranger look, in contrast of the bare chested models and attires.

Owens, at times, contrarian laced dichotomy, is very much on show with his latest collection. 

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(A.Glass 2025)