“Knowing how to reinvent yourself, while remaining faithful to your stylistic identity” might just be the simple, albeit elusive, key to enjoying spectacular success on the international fashion scene season after season or, to being no more than a passing and ephemeral trend.

Rick Owens, the eccentric American designer who for years has called Paris home, with his highly recognizable lines could easily get lost in the crowded limbo of designers who are unable to cultivate and reinvigorate their talent. Instead, the eccentric and highly personal mix of slightly hippy and gothic elements with more sustained ones, which might even pass for aristocratic owing to their full length and the complexity of the neck closures on the outerwear, both characterize his style and continue to evolve and achieve very high levels of elegance.

The Spring/Summer 2012 collection is built around an important and well-chosen balance of shapes, volumes and materials. As always, the designer’s ability to combine leather, silk and cotton, camouflaging the changes of fabric with different colors and printed effects, is exceptional. The personality of the outerwear is more defined, expressed and contained within recurring and unusual though, generally asymmetrical geometries, combined with draping, raglan shoulders and, for the most part, softer silhouettes.