In this collection, it’s as if the Velvet Underground was bestowed an Egyptian afterlife.
Titled “Luxor,” the collection basked in all the ceremonial splendor of the former pharaohs’ capital, the designer’s favorite winter retreat. The procession of wraith-like models with Black Swan makeup and sinister-shouldered jackets were more like a wink to Akasha, however—the ancient Egyptian mother of vampires whom Anne Rice immortalized in Queen of the Damned.
Once again, Owens exhibited his fluency in black, which shone in all manners of leather, from knee-hugging pants to shin-length skirts. But most notably, in Pirarucu fish skins rendered waxy and pliable enough to be fashioned into a pleated cape, able to wrap around one’s torso like an Addams Family lamp shade.
Pomp and primness were prevalent in cinched waists and shoulders pinched skyward. Consider the severity in these silhouettes Owens’s own hot-poker stab at the “prevalence of current online judgment,” Victorian-era England as it can be.
With clear-heeled platform boots and flashes of bottom pectorals, it’s as if exotic male dancers from the underworld found themselves in a Brooklyn dive bar. Puffer vests and zip-up fur coats in chocolate and plush magenta were a reminder that it can get pretty damn cold in hell.
