1/24/15
RICK OWENS~ GET THAT DICK OUTTA MY ASS
What Rick Owens' full-frontal runway show says about us
Basically: we're all afraid of a little dick
- Text Zing Tsjeng
- Photography Lea Colombo
Discreet, tucked away, quiet – these aren't the thrusting phalluses from Tom of Finland. Nor are they the cheery, candy-coloured penis shoes of Walter Van Beirendonck. And they're most definitely not the questionable bulge of Justin Bieber's Calvin Klein campaign. Independent fashion critic Alexander Fury compared one to a "turkey dinosaur".
As cocks go, they're pretty underwhelming. This sentiment was best summed up by one model from the show, who breezily told the Guardian: "It was not a thing at all. Everyone knew what they would be wearing at early fittings... I just noticed it when I looked at the photo board and saw that there were cocks hanging about. Ha!"
So why the fuss, seeing as we live in a world where millions of cocks are only a click away? For that, just look to the immediate online reaction to Rick Owens. Many people took one look and immediately referenced this scene from the Inbetweeners, in which Simon suffers from a wardrobe malfunction during his school's fashion show. He ends up proudly strutting down the runway with one bollock hanging out. Or the scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where Jason Segal drops his towel in shock when his beloved girlfriend dumps him.
In short, male nudity – when it doesn't involve wink-nudge clothed bulges or hard-ons – is always a punchline. It's a joke. We don't have the vocabulary to even talk about cocks without turning into giggly schoolkids (hence the Dick Owens puns). A flaccid penis is something to be ashamed of, laughed at and humiliated.
The catwalk has always been a social space where debates over sexuality, beauty and expression play out. Owens' show strikes a chord in the current climate. This week, the Sun dumped Page 3, only to triumphantly announce that its topless models were staying for good. Aussie magazine Sticks & Stones has found itself banned from Instagram for uploading a picture of models with pubic hair. Nudity is always political. In 1989, artist Barbara Kruger splashed the words "Your Body Is A Battleground" across a photograph of a woman staring directly at the viewer. That applies to men, too.
"Nudity is the most simple and primal gesture," Owens said backstage. "It packs a punch. It’s powerful. It’s a straight world now. It says something about being independent. Who else can really get away with this stuff? It’s a corporate world! This was our private moment."
Emphasis on "straight". Owens may have been talking about corporatism in the fashion world, but he's always been interested in enlarging the definitions of sexuality beyond the straight and narrow – you just need to look at his lookbook collaboration with the fetish photographer Rick Castro to see that. And what definition is more straighter and more narrow than the heterosexual man?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)