Paris Fashion Week: Goth kingpin Rick Owens lightens up for spring

A cloud-like silver lamé dress softly gathered at the back, designed by Rick Owens? That's right, for spring, the Goth stalwart lightened up his dark aesthetic with buoyant shapes and papery thin fabrics.

But first, he opened with a few of the asymmetrical jackets and vests that have given him appeal beyond fashion's avant garde, this time with paper airplane-like folds on the fronts, and angular peaks jutting up from the shoulders. Crisp sleeveless tunics with conical volumes were an interesting progression of his sculptural style, even if they were worn with what can only be described as loincloths that kept getting caught up between the models' legs.

It proved to be a minor distraction; the biggest news was in coats--light-as-air with crinkly flourishes at the collar. And then there were those beguiling, draped lame parachute dresses, catching wind as the models walked, and carrying Owens to a new height.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Rick Owens' Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Rick Owens' Spring-Summer 2010 runway. Photo credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times