Rick Owens AW25 men’s – backstage36 Images
Last season Rick Owens returned to where it all started, with a megawatt show he called Hollywood. Sending over 200 models out as part of a grand-scale cinematic epic, the designer was thinking about the earliest days of his career, when he set up shop on a sleazy stretch of Los Angeles’ iconic Hollywood Boulevard and started selling off OG prototypes of the distressed denim, baggy cotton tees, and low-slung basketball shorts he eventually made his name on. This season, at his AW25 menswear show at the Palais De Tokyo, it seemed like he was still in a bit of a nostalgic mood – despite being a designer who’s spent his career constantly evolving and pushing things forward, we guess that just like the rest of us, when the world goes to shit, it’s second nature to romanticise the good old days. Here’s everything you need to know about the show.
…fresh from a performance of tracks from her highly anticipated album Eusexua at Dover Street Market last night (January 22). The British musician stepped into a rust and olive hued leather look from Rick’s SS25 collection, and sat on the front row alongside Guram Gvasalia and Michèle Lamy.
After his monumental Hollywood show, Rick decided a pit-stop in another significant location was next on the agenda. For AW25, he returned to Concordia – a tiny industrial town in Italy where he set up his factory 20 years ago. Leaving the bright lights of the big city behind, Rick explained that moving somewhere provincial where not much of anything happens allowed him and his team to really knuckle down and focus on the job at hand.
Rick might be living a self-proclaimed ‘charmed life’ now – which involves frequent afternoon naps – but it’s not always been that way. The iconoclastic designer detailed how he spent that first year in Concordia staying in a grand suite in a bougie hotel thanks to a big wedge of license money, but when that run out a year later he moved on to sofa surfing in his own office for half a decade. Then came a few years spent sleeping in what he called a ‘serial killer room’ in a hotel overlooking a gas station, before he finally bought an apartment across the street where he stays when he’s in town to this day. Rick’s always been a champion of young and rising talent, and unlike some designers who see the next generation as a threat, he’s always used his platform to uplift and celebrate those he finds inspiring. With fashion more difficult to navigate than ever, maybe this will also serve to remind those making their way through the industry that success doesn’t happen overnight, and not to get disheartened if it doesn’t come all at once.
With all this schlepping between Paris and Concordia in mind, this season saw Rick join forces with German luggage label Rimowa on his own ‘Richard Serra’ bronze carry-on case lined in luxurious black leather. In the show notes, he detailed how he rarely travels with checked-in luggage and prefers to travel light, so his own chic AF case made sense. Secure the bag, Rick, in all senses of the term.
Rick’s always been known for casting some of the coolest freaks and geeks available on the agency’s books, but until last season, he’d not really explored having people with bigger bodies on the runway. Back then, he told us he’d wanted to include larger people in his line-ups for a while but never wanted it to feel tokenistic, so a show featuring 200 street-cast models felt like the right place to figure it out. It also seems like something he’s now fully committed to, with the designer sending a bunch of bigger models down the catwalk again for AW25. Rick’s clothes have always been a go-to for people who don’t fit the stick-thin industry standard, so it’s great to see him continue to represent them on the runway.
This season’s soundtrack came courtesy of David Bowie’s classic 1997 track “Heroes” – but maybe not how you remember it. As models entered Rick’s show space, the French version of the track echoed down the runway, which was very fitting given the Parisian location. After that, the German version of the song rang through speakers, which was soon followed by the original English version, the most familiar one of all. Could the versions in different languages be part of Rick’s subliminal message of global unity? We’ll let you decide.
The great thing about the US designer’s collections is that each look is instantly recognisable as a Rick avatar, yet each season he expands on his vision with new and exciting additions that feel genuinely innovative. For AW25, hoodies were constructed from white rubber and slashed into reams, the same rubber-cutting style was then used for shawl-like tops, and coats were covered with harnesses and straps.
Elsewhere, the common Rick signatures were all present, with druid-like hooded tunics, cropped leather jackets and Kiss boots all making appearances, but arguably the most eye-catching innovation of the new season were the fringed leather boots, laser cut and woven together in collaboration with Parisian designer Victor Clavelly. It seems that even for the most show-stopping piece in his collection, Rick is still intent on bringing in new talent to share the limelight with him.
Scroll through the gallery at the top of this page for all of the backstage action and head to Dazed Fashion for more from the AW25 menswear shows
