Rick Owens, Talking Doom

PARIS — Deep in the bowels of the Palais de Tokyo, a building dedicated to modern art, down a back stairway strafed with graffiti and through many a wandering hall, Rick Owens was leaning against a wall on Thursday afternoon, considering doom.

“It’s a doomy moment,” he said, “in a doomy era. We’ve all been thinking the system got so oversaturated, it had to go bust at some point. This is it.”

Then he smiled.

Because his consideration of doom had gotten him thinking about his doomy adolescence in Porterville, Calif., where he had felt stifled by conservatism and found relief in the music of the English singer Gary Numan. So this winter he had emailed Mr. Numan out of the blue, and asked if he could use some of his original tracks — something deeply personal — for a show, and Mr. Numan had said “sure,” dug them up out of his manager’s basement, and sent them over.

Sometimes even the blackest clouds have a silver lining. Not a bad reminder, right about now. After all, said Mr. Owens, these days “I’m in Paris, and I get to be as exotic as I want.” He broke free!