Fashion of the Day: Rick Owens Thinks Human Backpacks are So Hot Right Now

People are falling head over heels for these fall fashions.

Rick Owens had his big show at Paris fashion week Oct. 1 and think, and models, really took a turn.

As The New York Times reported, it started out normally enough:

Then came the first of many models who wore fellow travelers on their backs like knapsacks, trussed to them with padded straps, face up, face down, upside-down or trailing: women bearing women, often in gymnastic contortions. (They were reportedly local gymnasts.) "She ain't heavy," the message seemed to run, "she's my sister."

It was transporting and affecting (not least because of the live performance by the vocalist Eska), as well as confounding and odd. There were gasps and iPhone photos, but no immediate explanation from Mr. Owens, a provocateur with a long history of and taste for on-the-runway theatrics.

I'm tired of people saying fashion is out of touch. Rick Owens' show full of wearable practical accessible garms pic.twitter.com/mGWgWipL9V

— Jack Guinness (@Jackguinness) October 1, 2015

Rick Owens' human backpacks on the runway #MFWSS16 pic.twitter.com/MgjOGjUexs

— Kanyeberly (@Kimblagh) October 1, 2015

The baggage we all carry is...each other. Rick Owens show, #PFW pic.twitter.com/vR9MXWc2jY

— Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) October 1, 2015

Final Exit from Rick Owens FW16 is Aces. Bravo! pic.twitter.com/SNZnLrhjev

— Jules (@JulienDecanali) October 1, 2015

No word on the cost of such high fashion.