F  L  A  U  N  T

![Alt Text]() In a continuation of his men’s show in late June, Rick Owens paid homage to Larry Legaspi, the creator of the silver and black space-sleaze looks for Labelle and Kiss in the 1970’s, with a book to be published in October when the fall clothes will be at the stores. Owens stated that Legaspi “introduced a camp ferocity to the mainstream and help set a lot of kids like me free, with his mix of Art Deco sexual ambiguity and raw, black leather bombast. There was a sweaty elegance to his vision that stayed with me.” That memory of the ‘sweaty elegance’ and of the Legaspi legacy showed up in black and silver degrade print on duvet duffer coats, scarves, and bleach denims as well as some of the lightning bolt flash signs as charms on accessories and bags and long duffles. It was a tremendous show of force for the many signatures that Rick Owens has nurtured over the years, but at times obscure some of his best work with complicated large coats sometimes dangling amorphously over simple column dresses that were hidden beneath layers of felt wool and shearling cloths. This time Owens gave a balance of great clothes to wear with a quotient of his own signature twists of fashion in a demonstration that started with the first few opening looks of his tailoring skills at the forefront – a black wool coat with pagoda shoulders, worn with a stretch bodysuit with twist curls, a black long single breasted wool coat draping over the legs, and a mustard gold high shoulder long coat with large leather patch pockets – all paired with those glam rock, a bit of raw sex appeal shown through with the various snap crotch stretch maillot bodysuits. Bodysuits were paired with tank tops or under silver horsehair blousons, which along with the iterations of short shearling coats were probably some of the best designed shearlings blousons around. Owens has no rivals when it comes to his work on leather and shearlings. Owens was in a new mood that started with the men’s fall show. Here the designer went further to celebrate beauty in a way that has not been apparent in his last several shows, including last season Tower of Babel. The work done with the dresses in the show was very detailed and from afar, one can easily tell it’s a Rick Owens garment – a white jersey dress that wrap around the body revealing a little bit of skin here and there, a red jersey asymmetrical sleeves long dress with split at the knees or a violet long jersey dress with one raised shoulder and side drapes. Furthermore these dresses are both sexy and romantic, not really adjectives to describe Owens clothes. But there they are and that sex appeal even included a red bodysuit worn under a perfectly tailored mannish grey wool coat. What was great to see is how in these last two shows, Owens has taken a great leap forward both in the conceptualization of his shows and in the execution of the clothes.

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Images courtesy of Owenscorp