Rick Owens is ready for the apocalypse with collection of post-nuclear staples

Rick Owens delivers apocalypse-ready collection

PARIS — American designer Rick Owens continued to plumb the depths of the dark side Friday, with a fall-winter 2010-2011 menswear collection of gender-bending, space age-y designs ready for the apocalypse.

Androgynous models with enviable cheekbones skulked down the catwalk in bulky, tie-waisted trenches in lacquered microfiber or wrinkly microfiber with stiff, standup necklines and drop-crotched harem pants. Some wore ribbed turtlenecks with knee-length flaps in the front and back, while others sported leather tank tops that left their backs bare.

Their lanky arms tapered into blunt tips — the work of elbow-length leather gloves that ended in a kind of snout or suction cup.

Overall, the collection, with its asymmetrical hemlines and great floppy flaps of fabric, looked like the kind of wardrobe the father and son in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic fable “The Road” would have fashioned out of found detritus.

Owens, who hails from California but whose designs look like they’ve never seen a ray of sun, strayed away from his usual somber palette, sending out some looks in light gray or shiny off-white. A fur-lined coat in blinding gold lame looked sure to please U.S. rap star Kanye West, who watched the show from his front-row perch.