RICK'S REVOLUTION

For his S/S 2014 womenswear presentation, the message was clear. Rick Owens was angry. Angry about what, though? There have been several suggestions that the show was a promotion of racial diversity, or a commentary on the size debate that continues to rage on, but surely if it were just about these two issues he would have used an all-black cast (there were women of all ethnicities) or women that were all plus-size? There seems to be more to Rick's casting than just the issues of race and size. The overarching message was that Rick seemed to be angry about the constraints of the fashion industry in general, an issue which is becoming more and more pertinent with every day that passes. Talk is now more focused on which houses are selling well than which houses are showing innovativity, and headlines tend to be about sales increases or luxury investors such as LVMH pumping money into marketable designers such as J.W. Anderson. 

What's ironic is that Rick himself hasn't particularly given any kind of in-depth commentary on the ideology or casting for his show. He has said simply that he wants to redefine beauty, but for anyone with more than a casual interest in fashion, the implications are so much deeper. The fashion industry is a lucrative one, and it is one still plagued with issues - from the argument that the industry is too exclusive through to the exploitation of young models, there is so much that continues to be fundamentally wrong within the industry, but it is something which cannot be solved entirely and it is something that people are working to alleviate. The main way in which Rick's show was revolutionary was its presentation. It was not shown on a runway, the models stopped only briefly to provide the obligatory snapshot of the outfit and there was no attempt to glamourise the collection. The show was a return to what is so fantastic about fashion - it provides insight into a new culture, it captivates its audience and it provokes questions. Perhaps Owens was saying that there is a lack of creativity in fashion due to the tired formula of runway - that is, displaying the outfit, stopping to pose and letting the circulating images serve as advertisement for the collection. For example, this is one of the only recent fashion shows that I actually felt it necessary to see in video as opposed to a series of stills - it was a show, a performance, and the emphasis was as much on the model as it was on the clothing.