Rick Owens Womenswear A/W 2016

Since 1994 Southern Californian Rick Owens has built a small cult-like following in the underground glam rock and grunge communities. His Autumn/Winter 2016 represents a shift to try reclaim and reconnect, rather continue the spiral into the global monster his self entitled brand has become. Owens aimed to create an intimacy between the designer, the clothes and the customer: "how do I use myself to be more intimate? I plonked myself in my studio, and I draped every single piece myself. Every single piece has its signature, its handwriting. No one is going to write exactly like me, so even though it’s duplicated it’s very unique. In this day and age, that’s not easy, and so that’s something positive that I can offer. It’s maybe as far away from fast fashion as I can do”. As his brand is has that air of autonomy, overproduced and often replicated, he clearly wanted to avoid such comparisons. Owens' Rock 'n' Roll personality has been meticulously crafted into each garment, something unprecedented in the fast fashion culture of today. Owens called this collection Mastodon, which is both a reference to the elephant-like mammal that became extinct thousands of years ago and a metaphor for the handcrafted luxury culture, where production and time is a labor of love, rather than a deadline on a piece of paper, he sees becoming extinct in front of him. The collection was perhaps a tribute to the womenswear collections of old: soft, billowing silhouettes crafted in materials for the gentler kind: suedes, velvets and draping pieces of cotton were rife. Also, the cloud-like silhouettes and textures born reference to the relentless space-age vision of each collection Owens produces. Although this collection was a wink to the past, Owens is a space age man of the future. Shop the complete Rick Owens collection now at Hervia.com.