Rick Owens Walked on Water For SS26

Returning to Paris Fashion Week landmark Palais de Tokyo, Rick Owens opened the gates to his "Temple" for a sermon in leather, latex, nylon and sheer defiance for his Spring/Summer 2026 collection.

As a continuation of the brand's Mens showcase concept in June, models marched down the cement steps into water. The show was presented in alignment with his exhibition across the street at Palais Galliera, offering a glimpse into the designer's hybridization of European and American style codes. "This exhibition tracks the pursuit of glamour and sleaze that I was looking for on Hollywood Boulevard, and eventually, improbably, ended up displaying in a Paris museum," Owens shares in the press notes. "I have always thought of what I do as a fascination with the denseness of European aesthetic sophistication seen through a filter of American bluntness."

 

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Rick Owens has long rejected the divide between menswear and womenswear, but this collection erased any lingering question of his intentions. What walked, or in this case swam, the runway belonged to a singular, all-consuming universe: dark glamour sharpened with grime, elegance and brutality. Owens called them tough clothes for tough times. He was not exaggerating.

Voluminous skirts and slashed dresses spun from industrial-strength recycled nylon brushed against ethereal tulle embroidered with sequins so lightly placed they seemed to hover in midair. Trenches were cropped down to ribcages, paired with longline vests to build two-piece silhouettes that looked like uniforms from a dystopian clergy.

Collaborations also came into play. A partnership with French lingerie house LIVY added structured bras that peeked through open dresses and teamed up with New York punk band Suicide for the soundtrack.

For more on PFW, read up on Miguel Castro Freitas' Mugler debut.

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