Rick Owens must be psychic. Months before Naomi Campbell wrote to the British Fashion Council about the lack of black models on British catwalks, and Kanye West spoke out about black people hitting a glass ceiling in the fashion industry, Owens formulated a plan for his spring/summer 2014 collection. According to the Wall Street Journal, dancers from four different sorority hip-hop groups began rehearsing the show in May. The result? His collection was shown on a group of women whose very presence at Paris fashion week challenged the norm of what we expect from models.

The most powerful and provocative statement this season, nay in the last decade (?) yet from Rick Owens http://t.co/67plzRw0y8 — susiebubble (@susiebubble) September 26, 2013

Style blogger Susie Bubble was among many to respond positively, suggesting Owens had made "the most powerful and provocative statement this season" while Harper's Bazaar UK described it as the "show everyone's talking about".

Photograph: Rex/Bukaljo Frederick/Sipa

Christina Binkley at the Wall Street Journal reported that the designer and the models were in tears after the show. "His runway show was emotional, entertaining – and also entirely wearable. His rock-n-roll, layered, I-live-at-art-openings aesthetic came through loud and clear, even though it wasn't shown on 6-foot-tall 17-year-olds," she wrote. "The dancers fit the general dimensions of real women. Nearly all of them were of colour, in a season when the runways have been criticized for their caucasian-ness … Perhaps that's why everyone was crying. Finally, accessible fashion."

Photograph: Rex/Bukaljo Frederick/Sipa



Rick Owens's take on catwalk fashion is resolutely leftfield. His aesthetic can be summed up as black, asymmetric and (good quality) leather. The California-born designer has showed on the Paris schedule for the past decade and his shows now have an almost cultish vibe with many members of the front row resembling the designer himself – a kind of gothic Iggy Pop with long black hair.

Photograph: Rex/Bukaljo Frederick/Sipa

The clothes run along a fairly strict colour palette of black to grey to white and the catwalk music is almost always stomach-churningly loud. All of which means that the sorority dancers tactic was not actually that surprising coming from Owens, but it was still an arresting moment, and certainly made a change from the usual silent, bored-looking models.

• Watch a video of the collection performance here