Rick Owens returned to the Palais de Tokyo for Fall 2025 with “Concordians,” a salute to Concordia, Italy, where his label has quietly produced its collections for more than two decades. The show carried a stripped-down energy that channeled Owens’s history of constant travel and factory-floor immersion. In 2003, he and Michèle Lamy uprooted from Los Angeles to Paris, forging connections in Europe that made frequent treks to Concordia essential. In those early days, Owens sometimes stayed on a couch at the production site to “immerse myself in the rhythm of an industrial production schedule that I was new to,” and when he couldn’t sleep at the factory, he settled into what he called “in a no frills serial killer room.”
That no-fuss ethos still informs his approach. Reflecting on a recent project with Rimowa, he recalled his early carry-on lifestyle and being reminded, “I can need less but make choices count more. I want to depend on less things but make them as supernatural as possible.” This new collection is built with that mindset, focusing on pieces that transition seamlessly from work to wandering. There are sculpted coats in weatherproof materials—perfect for rushing through foggy train stations—and flared denim treated with subtle metallic accents. Owens’s signature platforms have been reworked into a rounded-sole style with traction in mind, dubbed the Factory, hinting at his industrial lineage.
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Notoriously partial to mild West Coast climates, Owens also admitted that thermal layers “changed [his] whole attitude about winter when [he] moved from California.” The runway carried that energy, with collaged jeans, heavy-knitted scarves, and structured jackets in felted wool blends. As always, music played a central role in setting the tone: “Heroes” by David Bowie served as the backdrop—fitting for what Owens has described as the “soundtrack to a lot of our lives.” He imagined the collection’s essence as “a village train station on a cold foggy night on your way somewhere to work on a weird and wonderful future.”
In step with the season, Owens recently extended his ongoing footwear partnership with Dr. Martens—fresh versions of those instantly recognizable boots are rumored to land in stores early next year. “Concordians” feels like a distilled version of Owens’s long-held vision: pieces crafted for that person pushing forward through unknown territory, suitcase in hand, every stitch purposeful.
