Men’s – Civilization. Rick Owens SS25

With this collection, Rick Owens definitely passes the audition for designing costumes to the next part of “Dune“. I would so watch it! But the idea behind his spring-summer 2025 fashion show – or rather, fashion performance – was focused on humanity rather than otherwordly travels. “We need civilization”, the designer said. This season he delivered 10 looks, each repeated 20 times, on a total of 200 models. It was a mass that culminated in a human-installation: barrel-chested strongmen in wrapped knit shirts, side-split shorts, and Geobasket sneakers acted as stern litter-bearers to a trio of contorting corseted gymnasts who flew a flag on which was printed two forearms, clasped together. Owens was inspired by epically choreographed spectacles of Hollywood’s Golden Age: the kaleidoscopic choreography of Busby Berkeley and the swords and sandals splendor of Cecil B. DeMille. “Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra has always been my favorite idiosyncrasy,” said Owens. This show’s format was also an auto-response to the designer’s intimate approach from last season. “After I had the shows in the house last season, I realized it was so restrictive. I ended up excluding so many people. So I thought this season, we’ll invite everybody. And all the fashion students who are usually outside the fence, we’re going to have them in the show.” This, he added, made the show “a great exercise in thinking about body types. Because I’m thinking we have 10 looks that have to accommodate every single body. So how do we do that? How do we make it convincingly look like Rick Owens looks? And I think we came up with an answer to that.” To witness such a broad spectrum of individuals marching as one in uniforms proclaiming allegiance to non-conformity was a wonderful display of humanity in the middle of Paris Fashion Week.