A Guide To Rick Owens (3/5) 2015-2019

Head to https://gamma.app/signup to check out GAMMA and start designing today! https://www.karstenkroening.com/ Instagram:   / karsten_kroening   0:00 Intro 6:06 SS 2015 Faun 12:25 AW 2015 Sphinx 17:47 SS 2016 Cyclopes 20:32 AW 2016 Mastadon 24:19 SS 2017 Walrus 28:12 AW 2017 Glitter 34:44 SS 2018 Dirt 37:38 AW 2018 Sisyphus 40:36 SS 2019 Babel This series aims to be one of the most detailed retrospectives on Rick Owens available — covering every era, collection, theme, and evolution across nearly 30 years of work. *Part 3 focuses on:* *2015–2019 — The Post-Human Years* In this third episode of my comprehensive Rick Owens series, we explore the era where Rick Owens reaches complete creative autonomy and transforms the runway into a platform for philosophical and artistic expression. With the commercial success of DRKSHDW, Lilies, footwear, and a fully independent production system supporting the business, Owens no longer needs his runway collections to function primarily as commercial presentations. Instead, they become increasingly experimental, sculptural, and conceptually ambitious. The video breaks down the major collections from Faun through Babel, examining how Rick Owens pushes his work toward increasingly abstract silhouettes inspired by architecture, performance art, mythology, and avant-garde design. During this period, the human body itself becomes something to distort, reconstruct, and question, producing garments that often resemble wearable sculpture more than conventional clothing. A major focus of this episode is how Gilles Deleuze's philosophy continues to shape Owens' evolving relationship with the body, while new influences—including Rei Kawakubo, Marcel Breuer, Joseph Beuys, Salvador Dalí, Frank Lloyd Wright, land art, opera, ballet, and classical mythology—expand the intellectual framework surrounding his collections. Across these seasons, Owens explores ideas surrounding desire, discipline, power, extinction, adaptation, ritual, and the possibility of transformation in the face of collapse. The episode also examines the increasingly personal nature of Rick Owens' work during this era. Against the backdrop of growing anxiety surrounding climate change, political instability, and the death of his father, the collections become some of the darkest and most emotionally charged of his career. At the same time, Owens' relationship with Michèle Lamy profoundly influences both his creative process and his understanding of gender, aging, and the body, leading to new forms and silhouettes that continue to shape the brand today. From Faun's meditation on desire and redemption, to Mastodon's visions of extinction, Walrus' search for hope beyond ecological collapse, Glitter's response to rising authoritarianism, and Babel's reflections on civilization and human arrogance, this era traces Owens' evolution from post-apocalyptic futurist into one of fashion's most philosophically ambitious designers. Future episodes will continue through each remaining era of the brand, examining how Rick Owens responds to an increasingly turbulent world while continuing to redefine the possibilities of contemporary fashion. If you enjoy deep fashion analysis, avant-garde design history, and long-form breakdowns of influential designers, subscribe for the rest of the series.