If you’ve ever wondered if Rick Owens is an astrology man, then look no further than his most recent runway show. The American designer just debuted his SS26 women’s collection at Paris Fashion Week, and the offering had a surprise nod to the stars, for all our zodiac heads out there. Named Temple after Owen’s Paris retrospective Temple of Love, two models emerged at the close of the show in black and white gowns with hand drawn lines all over them. After zooming in on our phones (models are quite far away at the Palais de Tokyo) those lines were actually revealed to be the planes of an astrological birth chart, with ‘Richard S. Owens’ written in a circle in the middle.
Also on the two dresses, along with the designer’s full government name, was his birthday (November 18, 1961), his time of birth (9:32am) and his birth place (Encino, in California). It’s clear from the looks that Owens wants you to wear your birth chart as a badge of honour, but in the meantime, why don’t you try his on for size? And while we’re not suggesting that Owens thinks astrology is the answer to all of life’s problems, the design suggests that knowing yourself intimately is something you should be showing off proudly.
Elsewhere on the runway, Owens began the show with a series of mesh tops with symmetrical seams and folds interlacing across their surfaces (later, Owens would liken these pieces to a “medical illustration” and tell us he made them in an attempt to “control people’s veins”). After those came more bodycon mesh, this time in the form of gowns, before Owens broke out into a section of leather trousers in grey white and black. “There was a time I was doing so many gowns,” Owens continued backstage, in reference to introducing more trousers to his womenswear. “And Michèle [Lamy] once told me ‘you’ve made your women so regal they’ve become unfuckable’.” Seems like, no matter who you are, you can always count on those closest to you to give it to you straight.
Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page to see the entire SS26.