Rick Owens presented his Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection at Palais de Tokyo on June 26, positioning the show as both a standalone presentation and preview for his "Temple of Love" retrospective opening at Palais Galliera. Models walked an elevated metal scaffold above the venue's fountain before descending ladders to wade through knee-deep water, some fully submerging themselves before climbing back up.

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The collection mixed archival references with new constructions. Terry-Ann Frencken, Owens' first showroom model, returned to recreate Totalkoster cashmere knits from the early 2000s. Dracula collars from the previous fall collection reappeared alongside new leather jackets developed with New York punk band Suicide. These pieces used Japanese leather from Hyogo Prefecture, tanned in Tatsuno and sewn in Atsugi.

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Core materials included vegetable-tanned Tuscan leather that was slashed and fringed, creating raw edges against the body. Flight jackets and parkas came in silk taffeta or GRS-certified recycled nylon from Italian mills. The silhouettes stayed true to Owens' established vocabulary: elongated proportions, exposed torsos through strategic cutouts, and straps used as both decoration and structure. His signature "Burrito Sneaks" and platform boots completed most looks.

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The staging reflected themes Owens explored in his concurrent retrospective. Water-soaked leather and silk emphasized the tension between permanence and decay that he described in his show notes as "thoughts of peaking, finality and decline." The scaffold structure and water basin transformed the usual runway format into something between performance art and fashion presentation.

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Owens also announced he had started an OnlyFans account featuring photographs of his feet, inspired by the Countess of Castiglione who spent her final years photographing only her feet. This detail, delivered casually backstage, embodied his ongoing interest in mortality, legacy, and the absurdity of fashion's self-seriousness. The collection served as both a summation of his three-decade career and a defiant statement about continuing relevance.