All photos by Sonny Vandevelde
Dear Shaded Viewers,
Recently Rick Owens took a trip to Egypt contemplating our times and found comfort in thinking about history and how one civilization was seized and added onto by another completed by another and unearthed by yet another and he translated those feelings into an unexpected and diverse collection. In the midst of this hater culture, Rick chose to propose some order and discipline by way of ripstop nylons with butterfly wing lightness and graphic construction using dyneema, a patented fiber considered to be the strongest in the world.
Extreme shoulders are a signature of Rick Owens and here some came in cotton or layers of silk chiffon in plaids with chiffon suspended from rigid mesh sheer shoulders. Bodysuits and shirts are larger than ever and silhouettes are cinched or large and floating. I’m leaving some direct quotes from Rick explaining how the world situation and his own meditation on it effected the way he designed the collection:
“MY EGYPTIAN SOJOURN LED ME TO DEVISING TULLE FLYPROOF ROBES WITH FACE COVERING HOODS WORN OVER SILK CHARMEUSE SHIRTS TWISTING AROUND THE HIPS AND TRAILING ON THE FLOOR, PROVIDING SLASHES OF SLITHERING COLOR.
COLORS ARE DELIBERATELY KITSCH AND LOUD WITH DENIMS LACQUERED IN AN IRIDESCENT SCARAB FINISH WHICH ALSO COATS PIRARUCU, A SKIN I USE OVER AND OVER. FISHED AS A FOOD SOURCE BY INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE AMAZON FOREST, THE SKINS ARE THEN SOLD AS A WASTE PRODUCT GENERATING INCOME FOR THEM.
I HAVE DEVELOPED A CAPSULE IN COLLABORATION WITH BONOTTO, A 4TH GENERATION TEXTILE MILL FOUNDED IN 1912 JUST BELOW THE PREALPS IN VENETO, WHICH INCIDENTALLY HAS ONE OF THE LARGEST FLUXUS ART COLLECTIONS IN THE WORLD. ALL THE FABRICS WHICH INCLUDE MINIMALLY FINISHED COTTONS AND RAW WOOLS, ARE WOVEN ON THEIR VINTAGE 1950S LOOMS.
I ASKED PARADOXE, A PARISIAN LABEL DOING ARTISANAL WORK WITH DENIM TO COLLAB ON SOME OF OUR DENIM PIECES. THEY PAINSTAKINGLY UNWEAVE USED AND WASHED DENIM AND THEN REAPPLY TO FINAL GARMENTS IN A PROCESS THAT FEELS AS DEVOTIONAL AND MEDITATIVE AS LACEMAKING IN A CLOISTER.
MUSIC IS A SWOOPING, GRATING, UNHINGED EXCLUSIVE MIX BY EPROM AND SHADES (SHADES IS COMPOSED OF EPROM AND ALIX PEREZ) REFLECTING THE UNTETHERED, WONKY CURRENT CLIMATE.
OUTSIDE OF LUXOR, AT THE TEMPLE OF EDFU, OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, IS A CARVING OF A WINGED SUN, SYMBOLIZING THE GOD HORUS WHO REPRESENTS THE TRIUMPH OF GOOD OVER EVIL. IN TODAY’S PRESENTATION, A BLAZING SUN CROSSES THE SKY, FALLING TO CRASH TO THE GROUND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. SENSELESS DESTRUCTION ON REPEAT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.”
CASTING AM CASTING (CLM)
HAIR DUFFY (STREETERS)
MAKEUP DANIEL SALLSTROM (MA WORLD GROUP)
PRODUCTION LA MODE EN IMAGES
MUSIC EXCLUSIVE MIX OF ‘THE CAT’ BY EPROM AND ‘ETERNAL RAIN DESCENDING’ BY
SHADES
