With in-person shows making a full return, luxury houses and fashion lines pulled many stops with their offerings - Rick Owens’s orb of fire and Louis Vuitton’s marching band tribute to the late, great Virgil Abloh. But beyond the spectacle, it’s the designs that hit the runway that will define the trends of the season.
For Spring 2023 Menswear, Rick Owens employed the theme of ‘The Apocalypse’. The runway was graced by models wearing outfits worthy of the end of days. Three 2-meter long orbs were set alight by technicians, slowly lifted by crane high above the audience, and then dropped for sizzling impact in the Palais de Tokyo fountain to further drive home the prevalence of an Armageddon-esque setting.
Down to the fashion, the models donned very daring outfits with some wearing pale, flowing fits, ready to wear in a sojourn through the scorching sands of the desert, or the chilly terrain of a post-apocalyptic world. With this fashion offering, Rick Owens harnesses the innate human fear of our extinction to create high art. The dystopian atmosphere on display is credited to the fact that Owens had been in Egypt, inspiring him to title the collection ‘Edfu’, after the site of the Ptolemaic Temple of Horus.
For Craig Green’s Spring 2023 Menswear, he takes us on a journey from the runway to many different places. The clothing in this collection are evidently tailored (or structured) to invoke a sense of movement, of travel… of “journey”. Green establishes his own private iconography; through the symbols within the stories the wears tell, and the atmospheres they evoke. The first model to step on stage in Craig Green had a pair of stirrups swinging from his belt. This ‘in-your face’ imagery emphasizes the ability of creativity in fashion, not only to take us on journeys, but also to land us in different destinations, and in Craig Green’s situation, a better place, possibly somewhere off this world; somewhere on a mystical plane, a utopia.
Eclectic designer, Mowalola Ogunlesi, for her Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear collection, made an appearance after a three-year hiatus from the runway with a bow, to a raucous welcome. Her return was one of realization of boundlessness of her own creative expression. In conversation with Vogue Business before her Paris debut, Mowalola was quoted, saying “Before, I would cut myself off from expressing in certain ways because I thought I shouldn’t do that,”. This intrepid desire to express oneself in freedom seeps into Ogunlesi’s own clothing and her first solo show since partaking in Fashion East for more than a few seasons. It would also influence the thematic direction she took for her Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear collection, as she outlandishly drew inspiration from thievery and criminality, titling her collection “Burglarwear” inspired by criminals from all walks if life, from kidnappers to stockbrokers and the priesthood. The clothes ranged from extreme, primeval covering, to stylish nudity. With this collection, Mowalola sought to combat gendered views of sex appeal, citing that as her reason for having both women and men showing nipples. Mowalola believes in the idea of weaponizing clothes, and other fashion items, assign of her willingness to fight for her right to express herself, on her own terms, through fashion.
With in-person shows making a full return, luxury houses and fashion lines pulled many stops with their offerings - Rick Owens’s orb of fire and Louis Vuitton’s marching band tribute to the late, great Virgil Abloh. But beyond the spectacle, it’s the designs that hit the runway that will define the trends of the season.
For Spring 2023 Menswear, Rick Owens employed the theme of ‘The Apocalypse’. The runway was graced by models wearing outfits worthy of the end of days. Three 2-meter long orbs were set alight by technicians, slowly lifted by crane high above the audience, and then dropped for sizzling impact in the Palais de Tokyo fountain to further drive home the prevalence of an Armageddon-esque setting.
Down to the fashion, the models donned very daring outfits with some wearing pale, flowing fits, ready to wear in a sojourn through the scorching sands of the desert, or the chilly terrain of a post-apocalyptic world. With this fashion offering, Rick Owens harnesses the innate human fear of our extinction to create high art. The dystopian atmosphere on display is credited to the fact that Owens had been in Egypt, inspiring him to title the collection ‘Edfu’, after the site of the Ptolemaic Temple of Horus.
For Craig Green’s Spring 2023 Menswear, he takes us on a journey from the runway to many different places. The clothing in this collection are evidently tailored (or structured) to invoke a sense of movement, of travel… of “journey”. Green establishes his own private iconography; through the symbols within the stories the wears tell, and the atmospheres they evoke. The first model to step on stage in Craig Green had a pair of stirrups swinging from his belt. This ‘in-your face’ imagery emphasizes the ability of creativity in fashion, not only to take us on journeys, but also to land us in different destinations, and in Craig Green’s situation, a better place, possibly somewhere off this world; somewhere on a mystical plane, a utopia.
Eclectic designer, Mowalola Ogunlesi, for her Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear collection, made an appearance after a three-year hiatus from the runway with a bow, to a raucous welcome. Her return was one of realization of boundlessness of her own creative expression. In conversation with Vogue Business before her Paris debut, Mowalola was quoted, saying “Before, I would cut myself off from expressing in certain ways because I thought I shouldn’t do that,”. This intrepid desire to express oneself in freedom seeps into Ogunlesi’s own clothing and her first solo show since partaking in Fashion East for more than a few seasons. It would also influence the thematic direction she took for her Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear collection, as she outlandishly drew inspiration from thievery and criminality, titling her collection “Burglarwear” inspired by criminals from all walks if life, from kidnappers to stockbrokers and the priesthood. The clothes ranged from extreme, primeval covering, to stylish nudity. With this collection, Mowalola sought to combat gendered views of sex appeal, citing that as her reason for having both women and men showing nipples. Mowalola believes in the idea of weaponizing clothes, and other fashion items, assign of her willingness to fight for her right to express herself, on her own terms, through fashion.
