From Rick Owens: “Last season’s collection was named ‘Porterville’ after the small judgmental town I had to escape from. This season’s collection is named ‘Hollywood’ after the boulevard of vice I gleefully ran to… to find my people… weirdos and freaks… living in a world Lou Reed described in ‘Walk on the Wild Side’… I was looking for the flaming creatures I had seen filmed by Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger.
I always reference the lost Hollywood of pre-code black and white biblical epics, mixing art deco, lurid sin, and redeeming morality. My personal Peter Berlins wear thrashed gym shorts and chiffon capes with jumbo Geobaskets the size of space boots. Capes and jackets also come in a narrow loomed Japanese denim with a tarnished gold megacrust coating. All our denim is treated in an Italian wash house based in the Veneto area of Italy that produces in smaller treatment baths to reduce water waste and utilize a water purifying process that enables them to recycle a portion of the water used. All of our denim washes are ZDHC certified.
Hooded biker jackets come in a milky canvas bonded with aluminum foil, or veg-tanned parchment cowhide from the Solofra and Tuscany regions of Italy. Veg tanning means only vegetal and natural tannins were used in the process of tanning and preserving this leather. These are worn over jumpsuits or gowns in silk gazar woven in the Como region of Italy and made from GOTS certified organic silk, which means the natural fiber is made without harmful chemicals.
Knit bodysuits and t-shirts are a collaboration with Tanja Vidic, a recent fashion graduate from Slovenia who makes the most imaginative DIY knits I have ever seen. Silver silk charmeuse robes are from FINA, a collection designed by Dafne Balatsos, who has been working with me for 25 years. For the first five years, it was just the two of us and one sewer. Back then, part of her job was to go buy a few meters of silk at Oriental Silks on Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood to fill our small orders since I could only afford a few meters at a time. Oriental Silks was a hushed and meticulously organized sandalwood incense-smelling store run by a quietly severe brother and sister team who were very kind to us. A few years ago, when she found out Oriental Silks had closed, she tracked down their remaining stock and has been making beautiful robes and pajamas for us all and agreed to sell them in our U.S. stores.
Our hair maestro Duffy’s platinum marcelled hair design from last season has evolved into art deco crowns made in collaboration with Coco Lucquijaud, a Parisian hat-making institution. Shoes are either suede marshmallow splint sandals or a deflated leather version of our Straytukay inflated boot collab from last season. Our gymnast bouquet is arranged by Ylva Falk, who composed the women carrying women in our Cyclops show nine years ago.
After showing in the house last season, I felt bad about making attendance so restricted, so this time around, I wanted to welcome everyone. I asked all the fashion schools in Paris to send us students and faculty, men or women, who would like to walk in this white satin army of love. Also included are old friends like Jakob Jakobsson, who opened my second show in New York 22 years ago, and Allanah Starr, one of the grande dames of the trans community from NY to Paris.
Expressing our individuality is great, but sometimes expressing our unity and reliance on each other is a good thing to remember too, especially in the face of the peak intolerance we are experiencing in the world right now.”
Photos: Owenscorp / Courtesy of Rick Owens
Casting: Angus Munro (CLM)
Hair: Duffy (Streeters)
Makeup: Daniel Sallstrom (MA World Group)
Production: La Mode en Images
Music: Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 – II. Allegretto, conducted by Christian Thielemann with the Wiener Philharmoniker
Mixed by Jeff Judd
www.rickowens.eu
@rickowensonline
Highlights from the Collection
