RICK OWENS SS15 WOMENS - FAUN

The season’s title, Faun, used for both collections, refers to l'après-midi d'un faune, the famous ballet performed by the ballet russes, set to music composed by debussy based on the poem by Stéphane Mallarmé– with choreography and performance by Nijinsky and sets by Léon Bakst– an orgy of modernism. In it, a faun chases some nymphs, and left with one of their scarves, masturbates to it– primal urges in a setting of rigid discipline, cultivation and glittering artifice... Nijinsky had to have had the shock of cubism in mind when he departed from traditional ballet by stripping the movements down to something considered crude and awkward at the time, and taking the soft romance of ballet to a more carnal place. This Rick Owens spring summer women’s collection reflects on this balance between hard newness and classical grace, and the eternal cycle of confrontation when a new generation challenges the old by tearing things down and roughly starts hacking away at something new in our urge to move forward in a more logical way. Silhouettes are rationalist summer essentials– roomy shorts, tube tops, the simplest of jumbo sleeveless t's and simple blocky mantles. But almost everything is in traditional tulle, each garment’s composed of layers of muted Léon Bakst colors cut into severe architectural shapes. tulle is smocked, pleated, crimped and folded to create light sheets of volume paneled in geometric primitive designs of leather and thick felt. baggy shorts cut in hand