When Beauty and Brutalism Collide
Review of Rick Owens Spring 2026 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Body as Temple, in Pursuit of Glamour, Architectural Armour
At the Palais de Tokyo the master provocateur’s diverse cast of models took to the waters once again.
Titled Temple, today’s collection exists as an ode to the opening of his exhibition Temple of Love, at the Musée Palais Galleria (across from the spiritual home of his runway show, the Palais de Tokyo) which is billed as ‘a meditation on love, beauty and diversity’, four pillars consistently present in the designers work. A spiritual symbol of the human and the divine, temples stand as places to restore and connect, immovable and resilient. Beautification and brutalism came together in equal measure as the concept of the unadorned – body as temple – was transformed through draping which may appear haphazard but was wholly intentional. Creating glamour through bluntness as todays notes clarified, draping was a key technique employed throughout the collection.
Mesh became a meaningful symbol of transparency, and not simply because that is what its purpose serves, the designer used sheer jersey, which could have been simply stretched across the body, but instead he inserted architectural seams changing its very nature “Geometric lines trace the body like rigid and controlling veining” as per todays show notes. Nudity was only partially suggested, with the body revered in this collection those aforementioned sheers were layered to both suggest the idea of the female form which lay beneath, then simultaneously suppressing it.
The determination in the bolstered shoulders, spiky elongated fringing (graduating from the hems of pants to full-on capes), and scrunched, sculptural dresses were made for the perserverists, possessing a ‘steely tenacity’ to push through with determination. These were, as the notes put it “tough clothes, for tough times” that will see us through.
THE DIRECTION
THE QUOTE
I have always thought of what I do as a fascination with the denseness of European aesthetic sophistication seen through a filter of American bluntness”
Rick Owens, Creative Director, Rick Owens
THE WRAP UP
Rick Owens’ Temple, unfolded as a meditation on the pillars of his work, combining brutality with beauty in his signature narrative of raw glamour. Draping was in fact rigorously considered with sheer mesh becoming architecture rather than exposure, and shoulders and fringes sharpened into armour. What emerged was a wardrobe that revered the body as sacred — a temple both vulnerable and indestructible. In a season that asked for joy, Owens instead offered resilience.
