Review of Rick Owens Fall 2022 Fashion Show
Vision in the Mist
By Dao Tran
Filing this review very late because I went to the exhibit curated by Michele Lamy at White Cube entitled “Sweet Lust,” which was a celebration of the erotic, spanning artists from Hans Bellmer, Louise Bourgeois, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, to Scarlett Rouge, Michele’s very talented daughter (admittedly one of the works I’m interested in acquiring). And the dinner at their place afterwards, where I was able to gain the following insight when I grabbed Rick to talk about the show.
My impression of this season was very old school Hollywood glamor, especially the way the stark silhouettes came out of the mist, it was very cinematic.
“So, growing up, we didn’t have tv in my house, so my first recognition of aesthetics that I identified with were these books on Hollywood Bible epics by Cecil B. DeMille. And I was also going to Catholic school, so I also wanted really badly to be very very good. So I was looking at these epics, and they were in black and white, everything was very grand and theatrical, but it was all the Bible seen through a 1930s Art Deco filter, because that’s when the movies were made” Rick Owens explained.
So, it’s Art Deco, the Bible, salaciousness – because Bible epics included a lot of salaciousness before they got to the moral ending. So, that kind of sums me up. Then I moved to Hollywood Boulevard, which I was attracted to it because of the glamor and because of the corrupted glamor of it and because of the thrill of danger and vice. So that all turned me into the monster that I am today.”
— Rick Owens
“That’s like a very easy summary. Isn’t it? I mean, it’s very obvious.” — Rick Owens
That does explain it all, the beautifully sculptural gowns evocative of the original Hollywood movie goddesses, the Art Deco silhouettes, the draping and the cowls, down to the Bela Lugosi shoulders.
“The glamor and the corrupted glamor” is a really good way to put the twist that is a perfectly languid bias cut gown taken to a new level by the signature Rick treatment. He has a really interesting way of creating volume and subverting proportion, which, when I think of things moving the needle in terms of our visual habits, I believe he does.
And for all of those people who of Rick as goth and black, think again.
We at the Impression are such big fans of Rick Owens because he is a true visionary and an artist and we are in awe how he manages to outdo himself every time.
All in all, Rick and Michele are the consummate Gesamtkunstwerk. They live, breathe and share their art, and we are the richer for it.
