Rick Owens SS24 Avant Garde Menswear Collection LIDO
The Rick Owens Spring/Summer 2024 Collection is named ‘LIDO’ and again was presented like the Rick Owens SS23 Collection at Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
“With our world conditions under increasing threat, jubilance seems like the wrong note but maybe it’s the only correct moral response? Beyond being nice to each other, isn’t personal joy what we are put on earth to do?
Considering joy a moral obligation, I propose a grim, determined elegance, all in a formal, restrained, albeit admittedly drama queen, black. How one handles adversity is what defines one’s character.
Strict structured trousers in wool, silk or cotton faille are high and cinch waisted and skim the leg flaring out to drag on the floor, and are paired with silk or leather t-shirts that wrap and stretch and twist and drape around the upper torso.
Cropped tailored jkts in gots certified organic cotton organdy or silk gazar have transparent silk organza linings to reveal the intricate confection of the inner construction. Sharply extended shoulders are caught with a skinny knit sleeve to control the volume and elongate the arm.
This construction is extended to coats that create an imposing silhouette while being airy and light as a feather thanks to the mille-feuille construction of the thinnest, lightest, crisp layers of sheerest silks. Silk also comes in weightless habotai used for shirts, tunics and robes that float around the figure in constant movement. All silks in this collection are woven in the como region a few hours drive from our factory.
Tailoring also comes in pure wool grain de poudre woven for us as part of a capsule in collaboration with bonotto, a 4th generation textile mill founded in 1912 situated just below the prealps in veneto, italy. Woven on 1950s japanese looms, with rws certified wool which ensures a high standard in animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility, each bale of wool is traceable back to its source. Bonotto also incidentally has one of the largest fluxus art collections in the world.
Shorts, tank tops, and jkts are made in oily calf leather veg tanned using wooden drums in santa croce sull’arno, tuscany, italy by a small family owned tannery with a lwg gold rating. The lwg certification ensures traceability of raw materials, high environmental standards, and efficient use of energy and water consumption in the tanning process.
From a continuing capsule made in japan, we present leather jackets made in 1mm oil wax calf leather, tanned in tatsuno, hyōgo prefecture and sewn in atsugi, kanagawa prefecture.
Cutoff shorts and cargo pants are cut in 13oz japanese selvedge denim, stone washed, over-dyed and waxed at our denim wash house in veneto, italy using only zdhc certified products and utilizing a water purifying process that enables them to recycle a large portion of the water used.
All jersey tops are in gots certified organic cotton by a mill located 20km from our home base in concordia.
Silk bandanas come printed with an image from ron athey’s 2014 performance ‘incorruptible flesh’. I have known and admired ron since the 1980s and have marvelled at the aesthetic he has developed and fully committed himself to since then.
Shoes come in a sandal version of last season’s splint boots in a heeled version and two heights of flat soles. There is also a triple strapped hoof splint. Like having leather pillows strapped to your feet.
I recently realised that few know our labels have been hand stamped in our village for the last 20 years by giorgia malavasi, a retired relation of one of our team. Hand stamped labels were one of the things I didn’t want to change when I started producing my first collections industrially in italy and will continue this tradition as long as this label exists.”
