The jewel in the high-fashion crown of Paris Fashion Week's jam-packed schedule is Rick Owens, who preaches to his choir of fashion goths from the fittingly brutalist Palais De Tokyo every season. For Rick, who has spent decades provoking, shocking and inspiring the fashion establishment, publicity stunts are a regular occurrence.
However, for FW18, there was no troupe of step-dancers or exposed dicks, just an excruciatingly loud techno soundtrack, excruciatingly bright lights and a shit load of Rick Owens.
The Lord of Darkness's brutal silhouettes, primal fabrics and weirdo styling quirks (nice haircuts, guys) stomped their way around the Palais, with particular standouts coming from Rick's two new footwear experiments.
One was a high-top boot that came with a massive, bulbous and see-through outsole (what the hell will that look like after a few weeks' wear?), alongside some dadcore sneakers that were so inconspicuous that they might have been invisible. Those shoes, alongside the show's total lack of headline-grabbing antics, were perhaps the most surprising thing about Rick Owens FW18. It was surprising in its lack of surprises.
But when you've spent the best part of three decades pissing people off and pioneering one of the most out-there aesthetics in fashion, maybe the best way to keep people on their toes is by sticking to the straight and narrow every now and then.
