It is quite rare that any collection haunts me in a way that I kept going back to look at it and certainly even more rare when it is a collection by Rick Owens. Admittedly, I usually have nothing complimentary to say about any of his collections with the exception of maybe one or two from ages ago.
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I had to come back and look again and I’m glad I did as this is not a collection about what you see; it’s a collection that forces the eye to subtract from what you see and extract the noteworthy. It is not easy to dismiss the gimmicks, the shock and awe and hyper styling and overall overstatement of it all BUT there is treasure in them thar hills! I’m not sure that’s what the Rick Owens client is searching for but it’s there!
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Firstly I find the collection rather sexy despite the blatancy and obviousness of it. Maybe it’s the casting, maybe it’s plunging and sinuously draped jersey tops or just the plunging necklines but all I can see is JACKETS! A treasure trove of jackets of every shape and material almost all of them sharply tailored and... Fasten your seat belt… wearable!
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It’s difficult to visually eliminate and dissect so much of the shock and awe that Owens employs every season but I found it easy to overlook the billowing pants the hanging straps , the snap crotch fencing/body suits and of course the absurd platform shoes and sneakers.
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I would plead guilty to having read the Vogue review which to me was some sort of ridiculous justification and dissertation about the inspiration of this collection. BTW I found the review had nothing to do with the collection but such is the media elite these days.
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Those who follow me will probably “read me” over this review but I felt it was something I had to write about considering the dearth of nonsensical useless and overpoweringly gender fluidity that has become fashion and permeated runways.
As I said to a colleague last week … when Walter Van Beirendonck becomes nothing more than a so what … you know the system is broken.
