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Phlegethon is one of the rivers of the Underworld, the river of boiling blood in Dante’s Inferno. Owens picked the name in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and the meaning was not hard to read. His answer to a hellish year was what he called “grim gaiety”.
The show took place without an audience outside the closed casino on the Venice Lido, close to his home. Smoke and strobe lights pulsed from the doorways, and the models came through the haze in platform boots that reached the thigh, which he called waders.
The clothes were prettier than usual and fiercer too. There was a lot of bubblegum pink and red, flowing sheer fabrics and sparkly “beach bustles” knotted above the hips. Against that came huge Thunderdome shoulders, vests and leather cut-offs that looked like tactical gear. Every model wore a mask, which Owens described as a vote for considering other people. The fishnet dresses were made from the masks of his Fall 2012 show.
He compared it to French women wearing more extreme hats during the war, as a quiet way of taunting the occupiers. That is the collection in one image: dressing up as defiance. It is dark, and it leaves you feeling stronger.
More Rick Owens: see every Rick Owens show we have reviewed.
Pictures courtesy of Vogue Runway
We do not own the rights to any of these images and they have been used in good faith. Every effort has been made to ensure that all images are used with proper credits. If you are the rightful owner of any image used on our site and wish to have it removed, please contact us at ayerhsmagazine@gmail.com and we will promptly remove it. We are a non-commercial, passion-driven, independent fashion blog and do not intend to infringe any copyright. Thank you for your understanding.
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