“I feel I need to propose experimental grace and form as a gesture of turning away from threat. Not really as escapism, but as rejection.” Thus read the notes of the great Rick Owens for his SS18 collection which he presented yesterday in Paris. Let’s give you a feel for the setting in a nutshell: Palais de Tokyo, rain ponchos against the steam blowing from the pool in the middle of the audience and Michele Lamy’s newly formed band, Lavascar, blaring through the speakers. Then there was the collection itself, which left a lot open to interpretation. “It’s a show about hope,” Owens noted, which appeals to the speculation that the collection was mostly about the state of the world. On the brink of war, refugees, climate change, it can all somehow be distilled from the collection. It has to be noted that there was a beauty to be discovered in each of the pieces from the collection, twisted and contorted as they may seem. That draws yet another parallel with the state of the world: the beauty and hope that sill lies deep beneath all the turmoil. Check out the looks below. Image and video via Vogue.