Paris Fashion Week: When Rick Owens’ grotesque models and alien styles frightened the crowd
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.
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.
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.
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.
Platform boots, which elongated the body in a nod to 1970s glam rock, soon led to exaggerated silhouettes with big curved shoulders.
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
