This is a big moment for Rick. Rick Owens is celebrating his retrospective exhibition “Temple of Love”, opening straight after his runway show at Palais Galliera in Paris. The exhibition, curated by Rick himself as artistic director, will be featuring designs from his early days in LA through to current collections, plus childhood books, a recreation of his LA bedroom he shared with Michèle Lamy, and a sculpture of him taking a piss (yes, really). This is only the third retrospective at Palais Galliera being given to a living designer (following shows on Azzedine Alaïa in 2013 and Martin Margiela in 2018).
“Who gets the opportunity to do this? This is like writing your own obituary, you get to define how you want to be represented forever,” Rick said about his exhibition on The Run-Through with Vogue podcast. “And then I thought: ‘Well, wait a second, that’s like Instagram, everybody can do that, that’s what everybody does.’ But to do it in such an academically recognised or officially recognised way, well that’s, of course, incredibly special.”
The collection reflected that. Baptised “Temple”, after “Temple of Love” – “‘Love’ is a word really worth promoting right now”, Rick wrote in his show notes – SS26 felt like a celebration of Rick’s career. The show was held at Rick’s usual spot: the garden at Palais de Tokyo, which featured a tall scaffolding construction, standing right in the middle of the pool. Models climbed down, dangled from the brutalist metal construction, and took a dip into the pool on this hot summer eve. It was crazy.
Draped leather pants and deep necklines were reminiscent of Rick’s 2010s era. Bare-chested models walked through the water like nymphs in leather, in the most Rick way possible, while studded and slashed leathers referenced Rick’s Hollywood Boulevard days. The palette stayed monochrome and neutral. He went all out with the presentation but clothing-wise “Temple” wasn’t as grand and avant-garde as his most recent collections (such as SS25 “Hollywood” or even FW24 “Porterville”) – but that wasn’t the point. Rick showed what he wanted to show with those collections, and with SS26 he took a step back and designed with love (leather pants and jackets, and a urinal print on a tee). The thing about Rick is: Rick just creates what he wants to see, he designs for himself, no one else. And if you get it, you get it.
“Temple of Love” will run from 28th June until October.
Featured images by Culted and Owenscorp©
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