Visible Peen or Simulated 69ing: Which Runway Look Is Worse?

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For spring 2016, Rick Owens put the peen of fall 2015 away, and had models carry each other like upside down baby bjorns instead. That is, runway models held other models, many while facing each other, so that the effect look like a "69" position. Occasionally, a model took a ride on another's back. They walked strapped together in a minimalist room with unadorned gray concrete for the Paris Fashion Week crowd.

The move is hardly a shock if you consider the designer's long career of alternative runways. Owens is known for bringing heady messages with varying degrees of sexual, gendered, or racial implications to the bi-yearly trade show. Many critics and publications were quick to analyze Owens's thought process along the lines of "women wearing women." New York Times's fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, for example,  observed, "The baggage we all carry is...each other," with a photo of the non-traditional runway look.