Rick Owens Sent Human Backpacks Down Runway, Somehow Accused Of Plagiarism


Unsurprisingly, it took approximately 0.3 seconds for someone to raise their hand and claim that monochromatic drop-crotcheted designer Rick Owens ‘stole’ their concept for his latest runway show in Paris. What is surprising, however, is that someone wanted to take credit thought of the idea in the first place, because it’s a pretty fucken’ strange one.

Behold – the human backpack!

A Brooklyn dance collective called Fluct has come forward stating Owens ripped them off, and has posted a bunch images from 2012 and ’13 on social media as proof. Fluct relies heavily on the concept of weight balance between the two performance artists in their routines, and appears to be wearing Owens-esque neutral-coloured clothing in the images that are captioned, ‘You work hard as an artist but to be copped and cropped and slung to hang dry. #Fluct stolen by #RickOwens’.

You work hard as an artist but to be copped and cropped and slung to hang dry. #Fluct stolen by #RickOwens

A photo posted by Monica Mirabile (@fluct_monica) on

#tbt #Fluct 2013 #FutureSad #PeachPickersHoeDown

A photo posted by Monica Mirabile (@fluct_monica) on

HOWEVER. A few of the more ‘seasoned’ members of the fashion crowd languidly pointed out that Owens was more likely paying homage to a 1993 image by iconic Australian ‘club kid’, drag entertainer and performance artist Leigh Bowery, called ‘The Birth’
‘The Birth’, which features Bowery & his wife, Nicola Bateman.
But regardless of whether the vision was thieved or merely a heavy-handed homage, Owens‘ explanation to Dazed Magazine was powerful and poetic:
“In the Spring men’s collection which shares the same name (Cyclops), that focussed vision was propulsive and aggressive. When applied to women’s, I see that focussed vision being more about nourishment, sisterhood/motherhood and regeneration; women raising women, women becoming women, and women supporting women – a world of women I know little about and can only attempt to amuse in my own small way… Straps can be about restraint but here they are all about support and cradling. Straps become loving ribbons.”
All images: Francois G Durand via Getty.

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