Rick Owens Spring / Summer 2018

PARIS — As a species modern Homo sapiens has maintained dominance by the ability to discern patterns. Humans not only look for recognizable sequences, i.e., meaning, they also have a knack for imposing it just about everywhere in their environment. It is no surprise, then that a Rick Owens runway show would yield so many interpretations about everything from our planet to its rapidly changing climate. Thursday’s women’s Spring / Summer 2018 runway show at Palais de Tokyo was no exception. This page was not present for the corresponding men’s show this summer that was also staged with highly articulated scaffolding, but it is understood that there is continuity with the site itself. The women’s show dispensed with that elaborate structure and instead had the models circumnavigate the misty fountain that was sequenced to erupt water into dozens of geysers some 10 meters into the sky. Rick Owens ponchos, folded neatly on every seat, were provided to attendees along with a strong recommendation for their use. The staging alone would send any curious person into dizzying speculation, but such a propensity would only ill serve the collection at hand. Hard to say where this collection would rank amongst the designer’s best, but as a celebration of pure form and its possibilities to resist any imposition of meaning or order, this collection would be an unqualified success. More than that, though was the ceremonial air Owens brings to his shows that walls off the rest of the world so