Turning the Palais Galliera in Paris into a temple of love, beauty, and diversity sounds ambitious, but if anyone could do it, it's Rick Owens. Temple of Love, the first exhibition that Paris dedicates to his creative universe, is not a retrospective but a complete experience that overflows the walls of the Musée de la Mode in the French capital and reconfigures the mirror as if it were just another of his silhouettes. It is not nostalgia but a dark and monumental choreography that covers more than three decades of creation, directed by Owens himself, curated by Miren Arzalluz, and commissioned by Alexandre Samson. An exhibition that you can visit until January 4 of 2026.
Ever since he made his way in Los Angeles in the nineties by recycling military bags, blankets, and washed leather into dresses and jackets, Rick Owens has been an outsider with a voice of his own. He does not seek to be liked but rather to propose. To propose another body, another rhythm, another love, another point of view. That's why it makes sense that the Palais Galliera has given him carte blanche to reimagine it in his own way. The American designer not only wanted to occupy the galleries and spaces of the Museum, but also to conquer the exterior to offer a complete experience.
The exhibition journey moves through ten spaces that form the different chapters of Rick Owens' career journey in the industry. It begins in Los Angeles, where the designer explores his roots, his sexual awakening, and the excessive nightlife of the 1980s. It is followed by Paris, where his work took scale, becoming an aesthetic and moral response to the chaos of the world and its system. From there, we travel on to The Joy of Decadence, a space that delves into provocation and pleasure, unabashedly embracing dissidence, while in The Gender Paradox, he explores the tension between the noble and stoic aura of feminine silhouettes and the brutal and aggressive energy of masculine creations. Rick Owens shares, "I’m admirative and loving with women, and I’m afraid I’m harshly critical of men because of all the shortcomings I see in myself”.
And yes, there is brutalism, literally. In Brutalism, his clothes seem to emerge from the very bunkers he so admires, specifically those documented in Paul Virilio's book Bunker Archaeology, World War II bunkers on the French Atlantic coast. Physicality then reminds us of the most political parades of his career: from African Americans stepping up to challenge racism to nudity to question the objectification of the male body in society. In Sculptural Confrontation, his vision becomes even more intense, seeking real alternatives to the system through cutting, form, and protest. But it's not all confrontation; in Tenderness, Rick takes a turn towards calm, vibrant colours and a sensibility marked by loss, origin, and love as resistance.
One of the most intimate moments comes with The Bedroom, where the visitor flies into Rick and Michèle Lamy's personal sanctuary: a room that encapsulates their rituals, their book collection, and that lifestyle where art, discipline, and “siestas” are intertwined with equal importance. And to close this journey, the Outdoor Tour reminds us that this is more than an exhibition, expanding outdoors with sculptures and gardens intervened with bluebells, one of his favourite flowers, and monumental silhouettes that decorate the Museum's summer restaurant, Les Petites Mains.
In the words of Miren Arzalluz, general curator of the exhibition and current director of the Guggenheim Bilbao, "Rick Owens has created a safe space where difference, awkwardness, and reinvention are not only welcome but celebrated." And that is perhaps the great truth that this Temple of Love leaves us with: that fashion, when it is honest and free, does not dress the body, but reveals souls.
