It was the first time I’ve ever seen masturbation referred to in fashion show notes. Then again, this is Rick Owens we’re talking about, the L.A.-to-Paris rabble-rouser who has done it all, from using ordinary women as models, to staging a step-dance performance in lieu of a runway show.

This season, Owens went a step further: He showed us a collection inspired by a famous performance, “L’Apres Midi D’Un Faune,” a ballet he called “an orgy of modernism.” And his clothes were so masterfully constructed (almost entirely in tulle), that they were practically a performance of creation before our eyes.

“L’Apres-Midi D’Un Faune,” based on the poem by Stephane Mallarme, was performed by the Ballets Russes in 1912, set to music by Debussy, with choreography by Nijinsky and sets by Leon Bakst.

“In it, a faun chases some nymphs, and left with one of their scarves, masturbates to it —primal urges in a setting of rigid discipline, cultivation and glittering artifice,” the show notes explain.


And so it was with Owens’ latest collection, a gentle dance between hard and soft, grounded and weightless, rigidly architectural and gracefully balletic. “If Brutalist master of concrete Marcel Breuer built a house out of layers of colored tulle, what would it look like? I like to think it might be along the lines of this,” Owens wrote in the notes.

The look: Not prima ballerina, but prima primatif.

Key pieces: Summer essentials, such as baggy shorts, tube tops and sleeveless T-shirts made of layered tulle cut into architectural shapes, some with color-block paneling or primitive-looking details in leather or felt. The shorts were transformed into cloud-like volumes through smocking, pleating, crimping and folding. The effect was that many of the models looked as if they could have taken flight if not tethered to the ground by heavy wooden clogs, tied to the ankles with ribbons.

The verdict: It’s easy to see why Owens would be enamored of this particular ballet. Because it’s the role of the faun that he plays in the fashion establishment, expressing primal urges in a setting of so much polish and BS. And thank goodness for it. Because the result is one of the industry’s most singularly modern visions. But this collection wasn’t just about pushing boundaries; it was also utterly beautiful.


booth.moore@latimes.com

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