Brand: Rick Owens
Season: Spring/Summer 2022
Buy: SSENSE, MATCHESFASHION
Editor's Notes: Rick Owens made quite a scene at Paris Fashion Week.
The designer, back in France after hosting his past few shows on a beach in Northern Italy (audience-less affairs, thanks to COVID), presented a SS22 collection that was equal parts goth and glamorous.
Michèle Lamy, Owens's partner and muse, opened the show in a three-dimensional leather skirt that jutted out at an angle. Paired with a new version of the brand's instantly recognizable transparent-heeled platform boots, the ensemble started things off with a bang.
There were, of course, Owens hallmarks including sculptural, cocoon-like knitwear and lots of black leather. But the designer also showed some surprisingly soft, elegant dresses that wouldn't look out of place on the red carpet.
A delicately draped gown made of sheer, blue thistle-colored fabric parted at the abdomen, revealing a patch of skin. A similarly slinky dress, this time in black silk, featured a geometrically boned bodice that gave way to a liquid, bias-cut skirt (The same dress also appeared in leather, styled with a pair of over-the-elbow gloves).
Other highlights: cobweb-like knitwear with dual neck holes, one functional and one placed at the abdomen like some sort of fabric belly button; a jacket-cape hybrid dip-dyed in gold; armor-like boots that buckled up the thigh.
This season, fashion's prince of darkness wasn't all doom and gloom. Owens played with soft pastels and vibrant oranges, lifting the veil on a brighter side of the designer — and setting the stage for his continued evolution.
