Paris Fashion Week: Rick Owens’ ‘homage’ to the American tourist

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PARIS -- Rick Owens’ sophomore outing at men’s fashion week here Friday found the designer easing up a bit from his Fall/Winter show (truthfully there wasn’t much room to move in the other direction -- if the collection got any darker and heavier, it would risk collapsing in on itself and create a black hole). There were gauzy, white long-sleeve T-shirts, faded, repurposed denim used to create geometric shapes, and black nylon shirts.

Pieces seemed to have fluidity: A zip-front leather vest paired with a soft-draping fabric hood; a messenger bag strap slung across the chest anchored a cloud of black fabric that resembled something between garbage bag and carbon paper. Zippers curved gracefully; a square white ‘tail’ of fabric fluttered from the rear waistband of pants.

And then there was the footwear, the most memorable of which were eye-catching black-and-white high-top sneakers with leather pieces from shin to toe that make the feet look like suction cups.

Back stage after the show, Owens explained his inspiration. ‘I call it my all-American collection,’ he said. ‘It’s sort of an apology for being such a [jerk].’

‘I was quoted in an interview saying American tourists were ruining the Paris landscape with their fanny packs and their man bags, so this collection has leather jackets that have arms that zip off and the jacket becomes a bag.’

After slowly sliding my own man bag out of Owen’s sight, I asked if there was anything he did differently for this collection.

‘Yeah,’ said the dark prince of Paris Fashion Week. ‘I used taffeta this time, and I liked the way it turned out.’

-- Adam Tschorn

More photos from Rick Owens’ Spring 2010 runway show

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