Kristina Nagel – Design & Culture by Ed

There’s something definitely intriguing about Rick Owens’ recent collection. The designer dialed down on the performative and returned back to his core, dating back to his 1998 debut, “Monsters” – his first complete collection, a pre-runway line-up that marked the birth of a new era in fashion. Not that the designer is retrospective in any way (although he take over the Palais Galliera from June with a retrospective exhibition). But you can see and sense that certain coarse, undone beauty of his long, draped jersey dresses reflected in the new season evenigwear, covered with thin laser-cut leather fringes that rippled like gills as the models moved down the runway. Rough sensuality was also embedded in the breath-taking mille feuille tops (that looked as easy to wear as a t-shirt) and the oversized, fringed leather jacket worn by Kristina Nagel (have you seen her recent shoot for i-D featuring Rick and Michele Lamy? Obsessed). On the collection’s ambiguous power-dynamic between the elusive and the bold, quiet and loud, he said: “it’s a constant, trying to keep that balance: of shock and wonder, but you can’t let people dismiss you as just being out of the question.”