The audience chatter dissolves into silence. For the next half hour, time is suspended and another world begins to take shape.
A figure steps forward…
Avant-garde fashion asks for acceptance of the impossible. The runway becomes a temporary realm ruled by the designer’s own mythology. The audience witnesses speculative worlds, unfamiliar silhouettes and unconventional beauty. The presentation is an act of persuasion.
Baptism: Rick Owens’ Temple
Shallow water pooled across the marble runway. The models wade through it gently, their heavy leather garments creating a current-like reaction with each step. Exposure slowly begins to feel like transformation.
In his Temple SS26 (Menswear), Owens stages a baptism rather than just a fashion presentation. As they navigate half-dressed, the models are presented in a vulnerable state. In distressed clothing and leather boots that expand above the knees and hug the legs and waist, they follow a deliberate path along the runway. The collection is centred around a neutral colour theme, dominated by black and beige.
The vulnerability created through sheer garments begins to fade into overwhelming shielding. The models begin to move down the flooded runway completely shrouded in massive leather jackets. The mineral crust effect of some jackets adds a heavy feeling of calcification.
Throughout the show, the audience is pulled into a process of metamorphosis, acting as witnesses.
At the end, once the models reach their destination, the towering scaffolds hold some aloft. Suspended above the audience, the models shift from transformed figures to objects put on display. This shift raises an unexpected question: now that the vision has been revealed, is the audience willing to consume it?
The arrival of Rick Owens concludes his transformative ceremony.
Canonisation: Lee Alexander McQueen’s Joan
In Joan, McQueen’s twelfth collection, the runway becomes a site of martyrdom. Metal mesh, silver-plated armour and hand-beaded embroidery place the models as warrior figures. With red eyes, shaved eyebrows and concealed faces, they become the women the world misunderstands. Their grotesque beauty removes any glimpse of vulnerability, embodying a state of rebellion.
As a theme, the collection draws upon the persecution of Joan of Arc. Masculine draping, latex, sheer fabric and armour-like garments present an unconventional presence of femininity. Beauty and brutality become one, and the models demand more than just admiration. Their presence demands fear and devotion.
The darkness in the room contrasts the flashes of light reflected by the crystallised runway. The audience witnesses models who have already crossed the threshold of change, facing figures who carry certainty.
At the end, a solitary figure enters a ring of fire. The model wears a high-necked gown completely covered in thousands of hand-beaded blood-red bugle beads. This does not only conceal her identity but also removes her personhood, turning her into a symbol. Fire flickers across the surface of the dress and she does not retreat from it. She moves with it, claiming her power, and so martyrdom becomes canonisation.
Suspension: Han Kjøbenhavn’s Corrosion
Han Kjøbenhavn’s AW26 couture collection, Corrosion, sets the stage for a world suspended between sky and earth. Sheer pieces of fabric hang from the ceiling and meet the arid ground, creating a barren landscape. The translucent panels meld the boundaries between the sky and the earth, and the runway becomes a threshold instead of a destination. Models move through the threshold in a slow circular procession.
Sculptural headpieces stretch towards the sky, while in some cases the fabric expands towards the back in a forced stretch, as a pull from behind. Elongated skirts drag on the ground behind the silhouettes. Dresses swell around the waist and shoulders, adding weight to the figures on their path.
In the end, Corrosion offers no fulfilment. The models’ wandering continues without evolution or sacrifice. The silhouettes are trapped in their circular suspension, and the ceremony ends with no release.
When the Ceremony Ends
Whether through Rick Owens’ baptism of transformation, Lee Alexander McQueen’s canonisation of the transformed, or Jannik Wikkelsø Davidsen’s endless suspension for Han Kjøbenhavn, each collection delivers a distinct vision of humanity within a curated world.
The runway becomes a space where various realities can exist. It invites the audience to question identity and contemplate change.
With the final silhouette leaving the runway, the space dissolves back into reality, the audience returns to itself, and the ceremony ends.
Yet one question continues to echo beyond the runway: are we willing to consume what we have witnessed?
Credits
Written by Daniel Patrulescu @daarkle
Cover by Rick Owens (Press Material)