RICK OWENS SS23 WOMENS EDFU

SS23 EDFU WOMEN’S THURSDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2022, 17H30 PALAIS DE TOKYO, 13 AVENUE DU PRÉSIDENT WILSON, 75116 PARIS THIS SEASONS WOMEN’S SPRING COLLECTION, LIKE THE MEN’S SPRING COLLECTION BEFORE IT, IS NAMED ‘EDFU’ AFTER THE EGYPTIAN TEMPLE ON THE WEST BANK OF THE NILE IN EGYPT. I HAVE BEEN RETREATING TO EGYPT WHERE I FIND GREAT COMFORT IN THE REMOTENESS AND SCALE OF ITS HISTORY. MY PERSONAL CONCERNS AND GLOBAL DISCOMFORTS FEEL SMALL IN THE FACE OF THAT KIND OF TIMELESSNESS. LYING DOWN IN THE DIRT WITH THE VALLEY OF KINGS WITHIN VIEW IS A VERY SOOTHING PERSPECTIVE. THE TEMPLES STARTED BY ONE CIVILIZATION, SEIZED AND ADDED ONTO BY ANOTHER, COMPLETED BY ANOTHER AND THEN UNEARTHED BY YET ANOTHER ARE REASSURING IN THEIR STOIC PERMANENCE. IN MY YOUTH, EGYPT HAD ALWAYS BEEN A SETTING OF THE MORALITY STORIES I HAD LEARNED IN CATHOLIC SCHOOL... AND IN THE SILENT MOVIE BOOKS IN MY PARENTS BASEMENT FEATURING CECIL B. DEMILLE’S BIBLICAL EPICS AND MOVIES STARRING THEDA BARA, A CREATURE DRESSED AS AN EXOTIC ANCIENT FEMME FATALE WHO WAS ORIGINALLY BORN THEODOSIA GOODMAN IN CINCINNATI, OHIO. THESE MOVIES BECAME MY AESTHETIC RECIPE– ANCIENT STORIES ABOUT FAITH AND HIGHER PURPOSE MIXED WITH A CAMP AND LURID EXOTICISM SEEN THROUGH A TURN OF THE CENTURY BLACK AND WHITE ART NOUVEAU FILTER. WITH A DOSE OF SELF INVENTION– THEDA’S FIERCE AND POWERFUL AND FRANKLY ARTIFICIAL SELF THAT UNDERSTOOD AND ACKNOWLEDGED THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS OF REAL LIFE. CHANNELING THEDA BARA POSING FOR GUSTAVE MOREAU,