According to Owens’s show notes, the story of this collection was “experimental grace and form.” It was meant to symbolize the rejection of the world’s darkness: environmental peril, social intolerance, cultural wars. It was a gesture towards utopia, but one created by imperfect humans....
In the face of climate catastrophes, nuclear annihilation, and assorted other sociopolitical affronts, Rick Owens is going to make what he damn well pleases.... Being a thinking man, Owens has been much concerned about the state of the world, our ravaged natural resources especially. So it was hard not to see the finale models as climate refugees, with their fanny packs swaddled like so much emotional baggage underneath piles of humble clothes...
Here's video of the entire show, which I've set up to play beginning about 5 minutes in, to maximize the weirdness. There's an interesting soundtrack, which Meade overheard and commented, "It sounds like Hillary." According to Vogue, that's "Lamy on the soundtrack as Mother Earth, laughing maniacally as if to say: Humans, you reap what you sow."
Being a thinking man, Rick Owens has used some of the earth's ravaged natural resources that he so worried about to create unwearable clothes that no one will buy.
It's like they were naked in bed, and the doorbell rang, and they just rolled the sheet around their body so they weren't nude when they answered the door.
Being a thinking man, Owens has been much concerned about the state of the world, our ravaged natural resources especially. So it was hard not to see the finale models as "climate refugees, with their fanny packs swaddled like so much emotional baggage underneath piles of humble clothes..."
An ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure. - Steel Magnolias
You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand.
A model might be wearing several pieces, but a real woman could take one of them, say a crazy (but not the craziest) jacket and wear it with more normal shoes and pants, etc.
Or somebody might take those insane shoes and wear them with jeans and and some kind of shirtlike shirt.
Absurd though those shoes are, they're more wearable than conventional stilettos. So what's realistic and what's not? We already wear a lot of unrealistic things, so why not find some wild, out-there things that feel like a lot more fun and express rebellion toward the conventional people?
"You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand. "
Whence all this gay misogyny (now there's a word I seldom write) and why isn't it the object of SJW wrath? If a run of the mill working stiff has the temerity to vote for Trump rather than Hillary and gets pilloried by every left-of-center talking head as a sexist, how come a homosexual who makes millions by dressing woman as vagabond clowns gets hailed and lionized by those same creeps and humanoids? I think I'm correct to conclude that gay men, by and large, hate women. Consider drag queens for a moment — their personae are all sequins, plunging necklines, and big hair. They're all Jayne Mansfield kaiju. That's hardly flattering, is it? Since when has a drag queen done a Madame Currie? Not lately, I betcha.
You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand
You hicks aren't supposed to like it. This is art and you backwoods tubes naturally won't understand. Hell, if you did like it that would mean it failed! You hatred and disdain is proof that it's good--pour it on.
Mmmm, so edgy, so our there. Art! Take that, Mom & Dad.
"You lack the analytical smarts --the raw intellectual power and refined knowledge --to appreciate real art. We well fed elites try our best to educate you, but it just doesnt work. Your distaste for good art ought to shame you, but in any case your expression of it helps remind us just how inferior you are to us. You don't get it; you can't get it. We LIKE filth--we can afford to like it and liking it proves we are better and always will be."
Prepper clothes for the impending appocalypse: don't leave home without all of your belongings in kangaroo pockets, but if you must, appear to have nothing at home. This sounds rather appealing to the conventional, not rebellious.
Would've bet big money that we were hearing Hillary Clinton cackling. It's cringe-inducing because she always cackles when she's being duplicitous.
Here she is laughing uproariously about being home alone during the Benghazi attack.
The poor girls look very unhappy. Well, maybe they always look unhappy. Maybe thats how they are supposed to look.
Why I dont know. From a simple male point of view it makes no sense, but I know its not us they are trying to please.
Anyway, there is a good (male-pleasing) reason for high heels, they emphasize certain secondary sexual characteristics. So there is a very sound practical purpose there.
"You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand. "
I'm sorry I can't correct the mistake of leaving in that extra "the" (before "whatever"). I'd appreciate it if you'd cut that word if you want to discuss that quote.
Also, if I could edit, I'd take out the comma after "feeling of it all."
A hospital in Paris is missing it's sheets. The shoes look like an Acid induced joint collaboration between Birkenstock and Doc Martin. All this proves is that good taste is not a requirement to be involved in fashion.
It looks like people after the EMP when they end up wearing sheets and tearing up sheets to bandage cuts on their legs and so on, because suddenly no one has access to anything.
OK. Now I'm trying to picture something in there becoming something I'd wear. That's sort of hard in Wisconsin. Winter. Well, I mean, white sheets in January, temp at, oh say -30 degrees? If I froze in 30 seconds and fell down in the snow, they wouldn't find me till spring. Summer? White sheets on Bradford Beach? These clothes would be a little too different by a lot. Spring? - I leap out of bed, taking the sheets with me and start planting. That might be fun. OK, now I'm getting a picture of a sort of white, blowing-in-the-wind top over straw-colored or grass-texture Capris and a wide hat. White hat? Or maybe a cat-in-the-hat hat made of rattan in earth-tones?
I think these are very lightweight clothes inspired by India and Africa, not Sci-Fi, but not, Oh God not, culturally appropriating beautiful Indian or Chinese textures or designs. So the clothes look like Sci-Fi. White unculturally-appropriated clothes - but not for white people as they make whites look as if they have TB. Irish medieval dresses have solid, brilliant colors slashed to show other solid, brilliant colors. Just a thought
The models are walking as if they have boards strapped to their feet. There is very little rolling motion. It looks angry and painful. If the story is "experimental grace and form" Owens whiffed on the grace aspect.
I'd much rather wear a pair of stilettos all day because they allow for a bend in the arch the foot.
The clothes remind me of the Cirque Du Soleil costumes that have been around for years.
Now, a male-pleasing fashion show with a unique theme would be along the lines of topless sarongs made of, perhaps batik or silk, with practical sandals to stay with the theme, and to display pretty feet.
And, above all, beyond being topless or anything else, the girls would be smiling.
I remember a Sunday morning when I was about seven. I'd been sick with the mumps for several days and my parents kept me home instead of taking me to church. I was feeling generally OK, but evidently still highly contagious, so there wasn't much for me to do but watch Sunday morning television. Baptist church service...(FLIP) Methodist service....(FLIP) Catholic mass...(FLIP) Davy and Goliath (FLIP — dammit — FLIP! Whew! No brain damage, I hope.) ...fucking Gumby. Actually, I didn't know that word for a few more years. I probably said dumb old Grumby, but what I felt is better expressed by the more obscene expression. I quickly figured out one of two things were true: 1) TV stations spend as little as possible on Sunday morning programming. 2) God hates fun.
That Art Clokey dropped acid doesn't surprise me. Imagine for a moment you've decided to make a career in children's entertainment and all you've managed to accomplish with that ambition is Gumby. At that point, it's either an LSD-induced psychosis or a bullet in the brain.
Gumby was brilliant. Loved Gumby. Inspired much effort with modelling clay. If I'd had one of todays digital video cams at the time, who knows what might have been. Oh well. I confess my lameness.
I looked through the Vogue pictures. I have to wonder what the purpose was behind all of this. Most if not all of the outfits were neither functional (comfortable or supportive) nor flattering to the model. Clothing ideally should be both, but if not both, at least one or the other. I can't imagine any sane woman wanting to buy any of these outfits.
A few thoughts: Most of the models had the right leg wrapped, and some had some kind of weird flipper extension on the left arm as well, completely covering the hand. I wonder if this is sort of like the long curled-toe shoes and long dagged sleeves worn in medieval Europe to show that the wearer didn't need to be practical.
#24: The green outfit is appropriate for the red-haired model.
#30, #31, #34: These are the closest things to a normal-looking outfit in the show. The last one actually hugs the models curves and accentuates her figure. Obviously some kind of mistake here.
Then it gets weird. All the rest from #35 on make the models look like some sort of silkworm caterpillar. That effect is probably most marked in #37, with the green and gray color scheme that mimics the leaves that the silkworm eats to create its silk.
Nina Garcia from Project Runway would say it was a cohesive collection. I look at runway shows like this as a live action art installation. I liked it.
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48 comments:
Okay, okay, okay: I prefer Liz Phipps Soeiro's fashion style to this.
You win.
I am Laslo.
Legal counsel for The Fruit of the Loom Guys will be calling.
Those magical Tivas are going to be a hit.
Have fun with yourselves, fashion people!
The Rick Owens creations are the fabric equivalent of Piss Christ.
This is a joke. Right?
Being a thinking man, Rick Owens has used some of the earth's ravaged natural resources that he so worried about to create unwearable clothes that no one will buy.
Fight the sociopolitical nuclear climate by wearing funny clothes.
Usually all you need is a funny hat.
Who buys this ridiculous junk?
Nobody.
It's like they were naked in bed, and the doorbell rang, and they just rolled the sheet around their body so they weren't nude when they answered the door.
Fernandinande wrote: Usually all you need is a funny hat.
Brilliant!
If the staff writers at Vogue read Althouse they might just snap out of it.
Being a thinking man, Owens has been much concerned about the state of the world, our ravaged natural resources especially. So it was hard not to see the finale models as "climate refugees, with their fanny packs swaddled like so much emotional baggage underneath piles of humble clothes..."
An ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure.
- Steel Magnolias
Was that woman wearing a toilet?
"Who buys this ridiculous junk?"
You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand.
A model might be wearing several pieces, but a real woman could take one of them, say a crazy (but not the craziest) jacket and wear it with more normal shoes and pants, etc.
Or somebody might take those insane shoes and wear them with jeans and and some kind of shirtlike shirt.
Absurd though those shoes are, they're more wearable than conventional stilettos. So what's realistic and what's not? We already wear a lot of unrealistic things, so why not find some wild, out-there things that feel like a lot more fun and express rebellion toward the conventional people?
"You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand. "
You special.
Whence all this gay misogyny (now there's a word I seldom write) and why isn't it the object of SJW wrath? If a run of the mill working stiff has the temerity to vote for Trump rather than Hillary and gets pilloried by every left-of-center talking head as a sexist, how come a homosexual who makes millions by dressing woman as vagabond clowns gets hailed and lionized by those same creeps and humanoids? I think I'm correct to conclude that gay men, by and large, hate women. Consider drag queens for a moment — their personae are all sequins, plunging necklines, and big hair. They're all Jayne Mansfield kaiju. That's hardly flattering, is it? Since when has a drag queen done a Madame Currie? Not lately, I betcha.
You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all...
How does one get that kind of eye without getting a lobotomy first?
You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand
Did Meade tell you to write that?
Please tell us he did.
They're all Jayne Mansfield kaiju. That's hardly flattering, is it? Since when has a drag queen done a Madame Currie? Not lately, I betcha.
Well, there's the guy who did that school librarian in Cambridge, MA.
So important.
You hicks aren't supposed to like it. This is art and you backwoods tubes naturally won't understand. Hell, if you did like it that would mean it failed! You hatred and disdain is proof that it's good--pour it on.
Mmmm, so edgy, so our there. Art! Take that, Mom & Dad.
"You lack the analytical smarts --the raw intellectual power and refined knowledge --to appreciate real art. We well fed elites try our best to educate you, but it just doesnt work.
Your distaste for good art ought to shame you, but in any case your expression of it helps remind us just how inferior you are to us. You don't get it; you can't get it.
We LIKE filth--we can afford to like it and liking it proves we are better and always will be."
They're Gumby, dammit!
Prepper clothes for the impending appocalypse: don't leave home without all of your belongings in kangaroo pockets, but if you must, appear to have nothing at home. This sounds rather appealing to the conventional, not rebellious.
Would've bet big money that we were hearing Hillary Clinton cackling. It's cringe-inducing because she always cackles when she's being duplicitous.
Here she is laughing uproariously about being home alone during the Benghazi attack.
https://youtu.be/yBdqxMUQByU
The poor girls look very unhappy.
Well, maybe they always look unhappy.
Maybe thats how they are supposed to look.
Why I dont know. From a simple male point of view it makes no sense, but I know its not us they are trying to please.
Anyway, there is a good (male-pleasing) reason for high heels, they emphasize certain secondary sexual characteristics. So there is a very sound practical purpose there.
Those silly sandals though have no such purpose.
Bet a store employee tasked with limiting shop lifting would go into spasms if this troop paraded through his territory.
EDH said...
They're Gumby, dammit!
Gumby looks like that because his dad took LSD.
Since people are having fun with this sentence...
"You need the kind of eye that takes in the whole big fantastic show and gets the feeling of it all, but that can also zero in on the pieces that are wearable and contain that feeling and carry the whatever prestige the big show imparts to the brand. "
I'm sorry I can't correct the mistake of leaving in that extra "the" (before "whatever"). I'd appreciate it if you'd cut that word if you want to discuss that quote.
Also, if I could edit, I'd take out the comma after "feeling of it all."
All I saw was a parade of sad anorexics schlepping bed sheets and hoping they weren't showing any body fat.
A hospital in Paris is missing it's sheets. The shoes look like an Acid induced joint collaboration between Birkenstock and Doc Martin. All this proves is that good taste is not a requirement to be involved in fashion.
"Or somebody might take those insane shoes and wear them with jeans and and some kind of shirtlike shirt"
Or you could just dissolve into laughter. That Hans Christian Anderson, he was really on the beam.
It looks like people after the EMP when they end up wearing sheets and tearing up sheets to bandage cuts on their legs and so on, because suddenly no one has access to anything.
OK. Now I'm trying to picture something in there becoming something I'd wear. That's sort of hard in Wisconsin. Winter. Well, I mean, white sheets in January, temp at, oh say -30 degrees? If I froze in 30 seconds and fell down in the snow, they wouldn't find me till spring. Summer? White sheets on Bradford Beach? These clothes would be a little too different by a lot. Spring? - I leap out of bed, taking the sheets with me and start planting. That might be fun. OK, now I'm getting a picture of a sort of white, blowing-in-the-wind top over straw-colored or grass-texture Capris and a wide hat. White hat? Or maybe a cat-in-the-hat hat made of rattan in earth-tones?
I think these are very lightweight clothes inspired by India and Africa, not Sci-Fi, but not, Oh God not, culturally appropriating beautiful Indian or Chinese textures or designs. So the clothes look like Sci-Fi. White unculturally-appropriated clothes - but not for white people as they make whites look as if they have TB. Irish medieval dresses have solid, brilliant colors slashed to show other solid, brilliant colors. Just a thought
I was not being sarcastic when I wrote the magical Tivas would be a hit. They look functional, despite their mummy wrappings trailing in the dirt.
People love Uggs which are ugly and stupid (don't wear a boot that needs a specialty cleaning service).
So so what if the sandals unwrap themselves?
The models are walking as if they have boards strapped to their feet. There is very little rolling motion. It looks angry and painful. If the story is "experimental grace and form" Owens whiffed on the grace aspect.
I'd much rather wear a pair of stilettos all day because they allow for a bend in the arch the foot.
The clothes remind me of the Cirque Du Soleil costumes that have been around for years.
Now, a male-pleasing fashion show with a unique theme would be along the lines of topless sarongs made of, perhaps batik or silk, with practical sandals to stay with the theme, and to display pretty feet.
And, above all, beyond being topless or anything else, the girls would be smiling.
I remember a Sunday morning when I was about seven. I'd been sick with the mumps for several days and my parents kept me home instead of taking me to church. I was feeling generally OK, but evidently still highly contagious, so there wasn't much for me to do but watch Sunday morning television. Baptist church service...(FLIP) Methodist service....(FLIP) Catholic mass...(FLIP) Davy and Goliath (FLIP — dammit — FLIP! Whew! No brain damage, I hope.) ...fucking Gumby. Actually, I didn't know that word for a few more years. I probably said dumb old Grumby, but what I felt is better expressed by the more obscene expression. I quickly figured out one of two things were true: 1) TV stations spend as little as possible on Sunday morning programming. 2) God hates fun.
That Art Clokey dropped acid doesn't surprise me. Imagine for a moment you've decided to make a career in children's entertainment and all you've managed to accomplish with that ambition is Gumby. At that point, it's either an LSD-induced psychosis or a bullet in the brain.
bad grammar alert: was true.
Gumby was brilliant.
Loved Gumby. Inspired much effort with modelling clay.
If I'd had one of todays digital video cams at the time, who knows what might have been.
Oh well. I confess my lameness.
Divorce clothes. Wear them and you will surely be divorced.
Gumbsia is worth seeking out on YouTube. Especially if you're high. Very nostalgic vibe, too.
Gumbasia, that is.
This would appear to be rather a case of reaping what someone else has sewn.
A Gumby short with commentary.
Gumbasia, sounds like a cross between Creole and Provençal cuisine. BTW, did you know Gumby's parental unit was called Gumbo?
No men in shorts, though. Can't be too bad.
I looked through the Vogue pictures. I have to wonder what the purpose was behind all of this. Most if not all of the outfits were neither functional (comfortable or supportive) nor flattering to the model. Clothing ideally should be both, but if not both, at least one or the other. I can't imagine any sane woman wanting to buy any of these outfits.
A few thoughts: Most of the models had the right leg wrapped, and some had some kind of weird flipper extension on the left arm as well, completely covering the hand. I wonder if this is sort of like the long curled-toe shoes and long dagged sleeves worn in medieval Europe to show that the wearer didn't need to be practical.
#24: The green outfit is appropriate for the red-haired model.
#30, #31, #34: These are the closest things to a normal-looking outfit in the show. The last one actually hugs the models curves and accentuates her figure. Obviously some kind of mistake here.
Then it gets weird. All the rest from #35 on make the models look like some sort of silkworm caterpillar. That effect is probably most marked in #37, with the green and gray color scheme that mimics the leaves that the silkworm eats to create its silk.
Nina Garcia from Project Runway would say it was a cohesive collection. I look at runway shows like this as a live action art installation. I liked it.
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