Porterville. Rick Owens AW24

Rick Owens‘ autumn-winter 2024 fashion show was womenswear continuation of the “Porterville” collection that the designer presented back in January. “Porterville” 2.0., shown again at the Place du Palais Bourbon location, was equally moving and breath-taking as the menswear version. “When I’m talking about Porterville” – his California hometown, whose name appeared in an Art Deco font marching across capes – “I’m talking about oppression and intolerance, and that’s a fact of life that’s never going to go away,” he said. “Part of my role in life is to counterbalance that with this cheerful perversity.” This Owens season seems to be one of starkest examples in fashion history where a designer is processing childhood trauma in such a powerful way. Hussein Chalayan and Demna did so too, but in response to being refugees of war-torn countries. “It’s not easy for a lot of designers to be so autobiographical,” said Owens. As one of Paris’s last independent designers standing, he has fewer voices in his ear and pure independence to do as he pleases. This was a collection through which Owens takes hold of his demons, in which his gothic instincts duked it out with his inclination for goddess-y silhouettes. Batwing shoulders scraped the earlobes, puffer vests swaddled torsos like protective shells, and leather-and-down boots that riffed on the inflatable rubber ones he put on his men’s runway evoked space costumes, as if his models might’ve just returned from a walk on the moon. The deep pink dress worn by Matières Fécales’s Hannah Rose Dalton looked like it had sprouted wings in back. Incredible.