There was a sense of confusion when the invites for Rick Owens’ FW24 Men’s show came through and they revealed the show’s location to be a simple street address on the Place du Palais-Bourbon. What was Rick up to? His shows are usually dramatic, outdoor spectacles, coloured smoke often enveloping the runway. The Place du Palais-Bourbon address turned out to actually be Rick Owens’ house, the top floors of which are his living quarters and the bottom floors are his atelier. It’s where he began selling his collection 25 years ago.

In the press release for the show, Rick displayed his usual frank honesty. In reference to his pared-down show, he wrote – “What I had intended as a respectful restraint may end up excluding a community that might have used my show to gather together for connection and solace. I might have to rethink this.” Rick knows how important his clothes are to his die-hard fans. Rick Owens isn’t a fashion brand, it’s a lifestyle.

Naturally, the show opened with Tyrone Susman, topless and wearing rubber boots that were inflated like balloons to create a sculptural, bulbous silhouette. These boots dominated the first half of the show and were made in collaboration with Straytukay, the London-based designer who dropped a DSM-exclusive capsule with Rick last season. Elsewhere, the classic Kiss Boots made an appearance but in a modified version. In Rick’s words – “I saw a cheekily improvised version of my Kiss Boots online and couldn’t help asking London designer Leo Prothman permission to produce them.” Imagine getting that call!

Elsewhere, jackets and trousers were made from recycled bicycle tyres and knit space suits were rendered in recycled cashmeres, alpaca and merinos. Some knits were supersized and wrapped around torsos so that the models resembled balls of wool on legs (and they were probably grateful with the sub-zero temperatures of Paris this season). Denims looked absolutely filthy, on purpose. They were treated with layers of wax and then pressed, washed and tumbled to create a “megacrust” effect. 

Many of the pieces had “Porterville” emblazoned onto them, a reference to Rick’s Californian hometown and the name of the show itself. “I remember the small brutalities of a sensitive childhood in a judgemental community,” he states in the notes. By dedicating this collection to such fraught memories, by staging it all inside his own Parisian home and atelier, there was a sense that Rick was looking back and saying – look at me now Porterville!