Rick Owens SS25 Fashions the Creatures of Hollywood Boulevard
At the Palais de Tokyo, the punkish visionary’s fashion brigade, comprised of Paris’ fashion school students and Owenscorp employees, debuted looks inspired by his early days in Los Angeles.
An army of Kiss Boots stomped their way into Paris’ Palais de Tokyo for Rick Owens’ Spring 2025 show on Thursday evening. Among those wearing them were Cardi B and Michèle Lamy, who took to their seats in the front row, while legions of other showgoers sported the otherworldly designer’s signature alien-shouldered dresses, futuristic leathers and protective puffers. The spectacle alone proved just how strong the Rick Owens cult has become.
Similar to his “White Satin Army of Love” show in June, Owens requested models from different fashion schools in Paris to walk his runway alongside loyal friends of the House and Owenscorp employees. Hundreds of them descended the venue’s grand staircase in groups divided by their garbs: some latex and leather-y, others extraterrestrial and more built for the desert, all in a procession that almost felt holy. “Hollywood,” Owens called it. That’s showbiz.
The collection was named after the “Boulevard of Vice” that Owens “gleefully” ran to while searching for his people, he explained in his show notes. “I was looking for the flaming creatures I had seen filmed by Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger… or Ken Russel. And I always reference the lost Hollywood of pre-code black and white biblical epics, mixing art deco, lurid sin and redeeming mortality.”
The resulting collection paid homage to those flamboyant characters trotting through Hollywood with a stylistic vernacular only Owens could pull off. Delicate silk chiffon textiles were sharply tailored to form fragile capes; denim was trashed on cut-off trousers, and transposable zip jackets employed rigid cotton and recycled polyester canvas made on narrow looms. Those inflatable Kiss Boots from last season were deflated for this one, and most of them had added shin cargopacks.
There was also a line of black charmeuse robes that were designed by Dafne Balatsos, who has worked with Owens for 25 years. In the early days, it was only Owens, Balatsos and one sewer building the brand; and one of Balatsos’ duties was to purchase fabrics from Oriental Silks on Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood. Thursday’s show was quite the magical, full-circle moment.
Owens concluded his notes with one parting message: “Expressing our individuality is great but sometimes we need to embrace our commonalities… especially in the face of the peak intolerance we are experiencing in the world right now.” Between the diversified runway cast, the uniform street style, and the collection’s supernatural design codes, there was something about this Rick Owens show that was unequivocally unifying — even if just for a moment.
See Rick Owens’ Spring/Summer 2025 collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week coverage.
