After presenting a full season at his dystopian Paris townhouse, Rick Owens returned to the Palais de Tokyo with a fashion show better qualified as performance art. Opened by his muse, Tyrone Dylan, and followed by models walking in groups of five to the dramatics of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Owens presented a unified “white satin army of love.” The show featured 200 models, for a total of twelve different looks, repeated 20 times each, each dressed from scalp to sole in various shades of ecru and white.

While this collection indicated a significant change of colour application from a designer who has previously been referred to as the ‘King of Darkness,’ Owen’s trademark sculptural silhouettes, shoulder pads resembling horns, and chunky boots were all still in attendance. These were paired with cloaks and coats (some metallic, some goopy, some chalky), shredded gauzy material, side-slip shorts, balaclavas and golden halo-like headpieces. 

The grandiose affair was in part tribute to Owens’ parent’s love of the boldly choreographed extravaganzas in Hollywood’s golden era. The limitations the designer experienced when showcasing his "Porterville" collection in his Parisian home last year also had an impact on him: "I felt bad about making attendance so restricted, so this time around I wanted to welcome everyone." I asked all the fashion schools in Paris to send us students and faculty, men or women, who would like to walk,” he tells Vogue. This was no small feat, as Owens had to accommodate each of the twelve looks to each body type. This challenge wasn’t only defeated, but conquered, with the repeated looks on various body types allowing spectators to absorb the details and consider the looks entirely.

Owens titled this collection ‘Hollywood’, after the place where he found his people, the strays. The models, all in white with ghostly makeup, were stripped of their individuality as an act of making space for ideas of unity, especially, as Owens remark in the show notes, “in the case of peak intolerance we are experiencing in the world right.”

Reinforcing its ceremonious atmosphere, the show included a triangular metal float held up by models and acrobats, one at the top who held a white flag bearing the collection’s logo: two forearms, tightly clasped. The formation, reminiscent of Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19), which at the time conveyed a strong sense of chaos and tragedy, is today full of restrained emotion, sending a powerful message of peace to a troubled world.

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS

RICK OWENS HOLLYWOOD SS25. Courtesy RICK OWENS