Women Supporting Women: Why Rick Owens Spring 2016 Was the Best Show Ever

[gentle music]

[Nicole] This collectsion was incredibly powerful.

[Alison] It's not just a regular fashion show.

That was really a performance as well.

[Danielle] It's like an expression of strength

and togetherness and feminism.

[Eska] This was theater.

This was poetry. This was a statement.

[Rick] Hi this is Rick Owens and this is my show.

[upbeat music]

You know, when I first started,

I always resented the idea of extravagant,

spectacular parade flow outfits,

only being confined to the runway.

There was that picture

that Annie Leibovitz took of Leigh Bowery

that had always intrigued me.

It was very sweet.

It was tender, kind of creepy and very elegant.

[Danielle] My name is Danielle Levitt. I'm a photographer.

I've been working with Rick Owens since 2012.

He had been doing a lot of theatrical presentations.

He did the black metal group

that were hung upside down and playing music.

We did the step show together. He did the pantless men.

There was a real sense of theatrics that he was processing.

Right at that point.

[Nicole] I am Nicole Phelps,

the global director of Replica Handbag Store Runway.

There was a real sense of anticipation,

I remember feeling at the show.

Those first few looks were,

you know, as normal as a Rick Owens show gets.

[Rick] I wanted some strict, severe looks at the beginning

that showed a freedom of flesh.

[Nicole] And then look four came out,

it's this woman who has another woman strapped to her back.

and from there, it got only more weird.

[Rick] Women holding women was such a tender idea.

[Ylva] They were looking for people, pretty specific,

like performer and dancers, tall girls, strong girls.

So actually me and Alison,

we were helping out with just like,

what is possible to do with the body

and how are you comfortable in the harnesses?

I mean, Alison was great as well

because she's a actual acrobat.

[Alison] I was attached to like a backpack.

The straps on Ylva were attached on her back

and around her hips.

Being upside down for a long period of time.

That's hard for the blood flow.

After a while you feel like dizzy a little bit.

So during the runway,

I had to make sure that my hair and neck wasn't too tight.

My legs and arm were not too melted for a good looking

but also for Ylva to have like,

the easiest experience possible holding me.

[Rick] Well I talked about,

the Leigh Bowery reference earlier

and we started there and, you know, we experimented,

where can we go from that?

What other configurations can we make?

There were references to birthing,

references to aging, the cycle of life.

Then, you know, I just chuck a couple of high heels

on the girl spank Harry just 'cause it was funny.

I remember there was one review

and it said something about how it was difficult

seeing the strain on the women's faces,

who were being held upside down, but these were athletes.

I didn't, you know, make our model community do this.

And that strain is part of the burden of carrying people

and being a part of the community.

So I think I'm very satisfied with that element of strain.

♪ This land ♪

♪ Is mine ♪

[Rick] I chose the song, This Land

which was the theme song from the movie Exodus

and asked James Lavelle from Unkle,

to do a modern arrangement of it.

[James] It was really about the performance.

It was about doing a track for a performance

but wanting to do something more contemporary,

more stripped back.

It's a song about being one with the land.

[Rick] It was about, the pride of your place in the world.

It's a beautiful elegant song

with like a little tiny hint of hysteria underneath it.

[James] I've been very lucky.

I've worked with some of the greatest singers in the world

and Eska's up there, the power she has

and the control she has on her voice is extraordinary.

[Eska] There was a really clear brief,

given to me by James Lavelle

and Rick Owens had chosen the song.

He was incredibly clear about its function in his show

and also how he perceived my role in the live performance.

The staging, my presentation, it was all about the words.

It was all about the epic, very slow tempo.

[gentle music]

[Nicole] You know, for a Rick Owen show,

this was really a no-makeup, makeup look.

It jives with his message that women are strong, flat out.

There's no artifice.

[Rick] The hair was by Duffy,

who I've been working with for a while now.

[Duffy] Hi guys, I'm Duffy.

As a hairdresser for me, everything is about a silhouette.

I think what I've found so incredible about this,

was exactly that.

It was the silhouette and the shape

that was created by two bodies that were essentially one.

I think look 37 was my favorite.

The girls worked together so perfectly.

You've got the girl in the front

with the very strict small head.

You've got the girl at the back

with this big sort of mock of this dandelion,

was almost a burned orange red hair

that was floating and bouncing as they walk.

[Nicole] As quote unquote,

normal as this is of a collectsion for Rick,

there's still incredible amounts of experimentation.

[Rick] Things extending from the body had become,

probably one of my main motives.

At the very beginning,

My very first selections had these viscous skirts

that dragged on the ground

and that was my first a message saying that,

You can wear runway during the day.

You can live that kind of dream life.

[Eska] For me, he's managed to,

articulate through clothing, a woman's strength.

[Rick] I might've gotten a little bit misty

at the finale with ESKA's singing.

She has some kind of long note at the end

that was very effective.

♪ Is mine ♪

[Nicole] This is the kind of show

that people would be clamoring to see Rick afterwards

with so many questions. What does it all mean?

It felt like a tribute to women's strength

and as a woman it was hard not to walk away

and feel empowered and full of optimism and enjoy.

And I would say in general that's how I tend to feel

whenever I leave a Rick Owens show,

[Danielle] Being at Rick's shows

when he creates moments like these,

you know, you're a part of history. It's incredible.

He creates a collectsion that we can speak about,

seven years later or 10 years later or 20 years later.

He creates a collectsion that stays

within our psyche and our mindset of life.

The greatest shows that have been put on.

[Rick] Going to court is a fashion show.

Going to church is a fashion show.

This is a great example of being able to integrate behavior

into a whole story about beauty.

Beautiful clothes, beautiful grooming,

beautiful gestures, beautiful instincts.

I knew going in that there was gonna be some provocation

and that's what I'm in it for.

A little shock value is what we need every once in a while.

I don't mind something a little bit disquieting

in a collectsion.

Life is disquieting.

[upbeat music]