If all Rick Owens shows told a story in a movie that would take place in a universe far far away, tormented by war that, around 5:30pm yesterday, found peace. How else to describe the ethereal intergalactic beings that walked his show other than the ‘good’ ones in a sci-fi movie or a rather more tranquil and serene us in the next millennia, only the Gustav Klimt hair and Ibiza foam party backdrop carried over from our past? Owens said he wanted to capture kindness and it was terribly kind of him to do so. This was a fantastic show, fantasy included, focused on a single silhouette, with so much for us mere Earthlings to wear.
Whether there is a correlation to be made between the bubble bath foams falling from the ceiling and the shower curtain tunics that dominated the collection we’ll never know. Owens has a sense of humour but perhaps they were fluffy clouds instead. If ‘shower curtain tunic’ scares you remember that this is a designer that knows how to drape so the final outcome of his experiments is flattering. They were off-the-shoulder, gathered with elastic at the top and hem and worn throughout over long lean skirts that rose at the back. The palette was soothing; oatmeal, sand and ivory with only a few black looks in stunning patent python and shimmering silver and gold – a cap-sleeved tunic worn over a long skirt had something of old Hollywood about it. The fabrics felt like they could melt in your hand, papery, silky and liquid. A white lean dress made of tiny little feathers was simply out of this world. It was great to see that it all turned out well in the end, but in the Rick Owens universe the adventure continues.
