Rick Owens’s ritualistic processions and towering, otherworldly silhouettes have become a piercing aperture in the midst of the Paris shows – one that entrances the viewer and draws you deeper and deeper with every season. Some say the designer is increasingly repeating himself, but I prefer to see it as a process of perfecting. His black gowns are leaner and more elongated than usual; the collars of the jackets reach a totemic monumentality; wrap-around dresses and outerwear become shelters.

The fact that Marlene Dietrich served as Owens’s muse this season adds another layer. He said he admired the arc of her life – from societal provocateur to wartime hero (the actress volunteered for USO tours, traveling to Algeria and across Europe to sing for the troops) and, later, to a steely cabaret legend. Dietrich’s iconic swansdown jacket inspired Owens’s spectacular goat-hair coats, whose monumental proportions engulf the wearer in a powerful embrace.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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