Fashion trends come and they go, but interesting fashion events linger in the mind long after a catwalk show has faded from the headlines. Fashion has gone where no fashion show as gone before during Paris Fashion Week as American fashion designer, Rick Owens got tongues wagging when he sent some of his male models down the catwalk with their privates dangling behind exposed groin holes in garments, in pants that looked like reversed chaps and high thigh tunics that left their genitalia exposed.
The Los Angeles designer embraced full frontal nudity by dressing models in peephole ponchos whose draped material with crotch holes and lap cutouts exposed more than just a unique fashion sense. Among his collection of military pea coats and cable-knit sweaters featured a grouping of looks with peepholes, allowing models members to hang free. This was the first full-frontal nudity in a men’s fashion show.
After the initial gasps died down, the Owens show started quite traditionally, featuring shorts over leggings, pulled-up-to-the-hem socks, black washed effect leather overcoats and wool duffle coats with a blood splattered look. There was also a tribal religious feel to Owens’ shift-like robes whose fluttering light materials looked like fashion wind chimes.
However, exposed penises were not the only trend-setting fashion creations from Rick Owens’ fall runway show. The designer also used the show to debut his new Adidas shoes collection. The stylish shoe collection introduced a runner ankle stretch boot, a runner stretch boot, and an updated Owens Runner. The latter takes the sneaker into a more textural state. These three fabulous new shoe styles were designed to complement Owens’ tongue wagging wild fall collection.
The religious feel from the Rick Owens’ Paris Fashion week collection had an edge of mystery that harkened to sending a signal to long forgotten pagan gods. However, exposed male genitalia was not the sole basis of the show. The exposing was more of a blink-and-you-miss-it event. Fashion editors have still been cursing themselves for missing a fashion first due to texting on other aspects of the show without seeing the sights that were on offer.
While exposed flesh is not anything new during a fashion show, even hardened fashionistas whispered and giggled like youngsters as they unleashed an avalanche of texts under the seriously humorous hashtag #dickowens that had the fashion world proudly declaring the show a hit. Rick Owens has courted controversy in the past with shows that have used sex for subject matter, and his new collection during Paris Fashion Week was no exception. Many females in the fashion world gave a nod of approval to the event, calling it “gender equality” while tweeting their own slightly humorous hashtag across the fashion world: #freethepenis.
Whether this fashion first will gain a foot hold in the fashion world remains to be seen. The experience was novel and very cheeky. The internet fashion world is still buzzing from such a randy display of silly depravity, but the event truly raises the question of whether this is this really something people want to see displayed on the street
By Tara Newlands
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Image courtesy of Tom BRILLI – Flickr License