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Paris Fashion Week: When Rick Owens’ grotesque models and alien styles frightened the crowd

A model with grotesque, alien-style nose cartilage, horns and make-up and a billowing yellow wig, catches the eye on the catwalk while presenting creations from Rick Owens’ fall/winter 2019/20 collection show at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Rick Owens pushed the envelope with a truly frightening and mesmerising show at Paris Fashion Week.

His fall/winter 2019/20 ready-to-wear collection on Thursday featured alien styles inspired by the American rock group Kiss.

Photo: AFP

The lauded American designer again drew inspiration from Larry LeGaspi, the late US designer whose silver and black space-age looks worn by Kiss – formed in 1973, and known for its member’s painted faces – and other rock bands.

It was the same starting point as Owens’ provocative men’s show last month: a sort of a reverential homage to LeGaspi’s bombastic styles.

Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP

This runway collection, though, was very different from the men’s fare in more ways than one.

It was genuinely frightening.

Models in monster-like face make-up – horns, alien-like nose cartilage, billowing wigs, and giant black pupils – strode out inside the Palais de Tokyo venue.

Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP

It had some guests gasping – and others reaching for their cameras.

Though the first styles focused on long, beautifully tailored coats – this classicism didn’t last long.

Photo: AFP
Photo AFP
Photo: AFP

Platform boots, which elongated the body in a nod to 1970s glam rock, soon led to exaggerated silhouettes with big curved shoulders.

American fashion designer Rick Owens acknowledges the audience at the end of his eponymous fall/winter 2019/20 ready-to-wear collection show at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Then, Owens’ signature envelope-pushing began: in the form of giant, sheeny space-age sleeves that might well have been a Martian’s answer to a leg-of-mutton design.

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The American designer’s fall/winter ready-to-wear line was inspired by space-age outfits of US glam rock group Kiss – it had the audience gasping and reaching for their cameras