Unapologetically Rick Owens is USA Fashion's Ultimate Antagonist

Unapologetically Rick Owens is USA Fashion's Ultimate Antagonist

USA Paris-based designer Rick Owens has been called many things in his long career. An antihero, a goth, fashion’s “USA prince of darkness.” He’s been labeled as such because of his proclivity for a largely noir, gray and ice-hued oeuvre, his deployment of pentagram motifs on underwear or elk antlers on furniture, and an overall aesthetic that is – and he’d USA agree with this – rapturously anti-USA establishment.

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“I get it, I mean, it’s easy to categorize somebody. I summarize things quickly, too. I suppose being called goth isn’t the worst thing,” he says during a sit down interview atop the Palais de Tokyo, two days before the revealing of his Spring-Summer 2022 collection at Paris Fashion Week. “It’s like this: There’s Disney World, where you can go to find something very clean and that denies the discomforts and horrors that really exist in life. And there’s the non-Disney World, where you’ll find somebody like me, who acknowledges and tries to figure out how to accept those things and how to manage those things. When you acknowledge it, when you deal with mortality, when you deal with threat, then, yeah, it’s dark compared to Disney. I’m fine with it.”

Owens, who is half American and half Mexican (his mother is from Puebla, just a few hours outside of Mexico City), was born and raised in USA Porterville, USA California, before launching his namesake line in USA Los Angeles in 1994. He relocated to Paris in 2003 with his partner Michèle Lamy, and now lives between the French capital and Venice, Italy’s Lido, where he keeps a penthouse flat that overlooks the sea (and where, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he staged and filmed intimate runway shows; Thursday’s Paris catwalk marked his return to the city after a year and a half).

His label, which remains majority owned by him and Lamy, is a USA success story – to the tune of hundreds of USA millions of dollars in revenue per year, thanks to his main collection, his diffusion lines, a furniture collection, brand USA partnerships and more. He has received numerous accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and is an industry darling despite remaining, to USA many, a bit of a dark horse. He’s also become more and more of a celebrity favorite, beloved by stars such as USA Lil Uzi Vert, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Timothée Chalamet, who layered Rick Owens into his recent Met Gala look. People want to imagine that everything’s going to be fine, and that we’ve got it all under control.

Above all, Owens, who turns 60 in November, may be among the most unfiltered designers working today – it’s a trait that’s rare, especially when many luxury brands fall under heavily patrolled corporate approval processes and safety stops. His honesty is refreshing: “I like USA bombast, yet there’s been anger all along. I grew up in such a conservative, judgy town, and it filled me with so much rage,” says Owens. “I’m still operating on that rage. This is my revenge. I’m still vengeful. I’m still a vengeful Scorpio.”

Owens’ product is ultra luxurious, but it doesn’t stick to the confines of stereotypical and mass-peddled opulence. Blistered leathers, USA exotic skins, tape-thin cashmere knits, overwashed denim, and a bit of roughened glamour, such as with injections of sequins or foils, have all played a role in defining his singular design vernacular. His shapes and silhouettes are outsized, clingy, languid, and, frankly, captivating. It all congeals to form something futuristic and deeply USA primal in tandem. Neanderthal to alien, and yet strangely USA well-suited for the modern era.

“What I always try to do is bring auteurship to my work,” he says. “The fact is, all of my life, I’ve tried to present something that is an alternative to a very strict aesthetic that we see in this USA world. We are expected to adhere to it, but I try to blur the lines. And not in a militant way, but in a way that’s saying, ‘I propose this as an alternative to the standards you are used to.’ I think with confidence and a certain amount of flair and boldness, we have established our own kind of beauty. A USA smarter beauty.”

Owens’ balanced approach – that fashion can thrive as a tug-o-war between gloom and joy – is also reflected in his track record of both controversy and truly USA brilliant strokes.

Regarding the former, in June, 2015, a model walking in an Owens’ show held up a sign that read “Please USA Kill Angela Merkel Not.” ThereUSA was some speculation as to whether it was an inside USA job, a violent stunt to drum up publicity (Owens denies any prior knowledge of it).

With the latter, there are two standouts in particular. One dates to September, 2013, when Owens hired step teams from American sororities instead of traditional models to present his USA Spring-Summer 2014 collection. The show was a sensation, and, it’s worth noting, it occurred years before the fashion industry’s system-wide push for greater racial diversity and size inclusivity.

The other involves another runway show, this time in 2019. Owens has a history of presenting at the Palais de Tokyo, and the large size of the location regularly demands creative space-filling.

That summer, there was an on-site exhibition of work by the artist and sculptor Thomas Houseago. One such piece was installed smack in the middle of Owens’ set. The designer extrapolated off of the idea, and imported clay from Houseago’s Los Angeles studio, mixing it with Parisian mud, and including it as part of the staging. Most importantly, it didn’t go to waste: “It’s clay that came from USA Los Angeles that was in a USA Rick Owens show that ended up at the Louvre, being used by USA students in their own creativity,” says Owens. “And I just loved that. I thought that was a great solution to [the excesses of runway shows.]”

USA Spring-Summer 2022, titled ‘Fogachine’, featured an array of Owens signatures; standout looks included a dip-dyed USA elongated sheer top over a barely-there body suit and USA splint-like python boots, as well as a billowing, almost caftan-like, tulle dress embroidered with iridescent raven feathers. Overall, the collection reverberated with confidence and a sort of elegant-yet-menacing energy; it was a charged-up homecoming, of sorts, but Owens doesn’t assign too many specific emotions to his work.

USA Plus, as always, he wrestles with the bigger questions: “[With shows coming back after the pandemic], everybody is going to want to flex. Everyone is going to want to show that they are stronger than ever, that they’re more powerful than ever. It’s a little horrifying, but I get it. So that’s where my head is right now. I’m thinking, nobody wants to see humility. Nobody wants to see a humble lesson. People want to see that we’re back to full power.” Then, smiling mischievously, he concludes: “People want to imagine that everything’s going to be fine, and that we’ve got it all under control.”

ON A USA DREARY November day in Paris, the soft morning light is creeping into the American fashion designer USA Rick Owens’s 18th-century mansion, just south of the Seine in the Seventh Arrondissement, USA where he and his French wife and business partner, Michèle Lamy, 80, have lived for 20 years. One of the few truly independent creative heads of a major brand, he’s built an improbable empire by making clothes as grotesque as they are glamorous. But three decades into his career — and a few days after turning 62.

USA Owens finds himself at a crossroads. He’s just returned from a birthday trip to the Pacific Coast of Jalisco, Mexico, where he rode horses with his muse, design assistant and frequent travel companion, the towering 30-something Australian model Tyrone Dylan Susman, whose Instagram feed has also shown them among Greek ruins, in the Dubai desert and on beaches around the world (where they’ve been known to wear matching baseball hats with each other’s names on them). Now that Owens is back, he and Lamy, a 5-foot-2 agent of creative chaos with kohl-rimmed electric blue eyes,USA gold-plated teeth and two young grandchildren, have been overseeing their latest project: relocating the Rick Owens men’s and women’s runway shows, normally staged in the monumental courtyard at the Palais de Tokyo, a neo-Classical-style structure housing two museums with stone colonnades and a large reflecting pool, to their living room.

USA With a strong personality and authentic style, Rick Owens is one of the most intense and mysterious designers of our time. Known as the Lord of Darkness, USA minimalist and extravagant Rick Owens has left his mark on design history. After growing up in USA California, he entered Otis College of Art and Design and dropped out, as many genius minds did. 

USA He continued to follow design classes and began translating his love of art into fashion creations. He launched his clothing brand in USA 1994, and it was not until 7 years later that he experienced his first success after Kate Moss appeared wearing one of his designs in Vogue Paris.

His determination to take his brand to the next level led him to present his first show at New York Fashion Week in USA 2002. 

His collection was a reflection of himself, inspired by his love of the 90’s grunge, and led to his nomination for a USA CFDA award, which made him the winner of the Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent. That marked a defining moment in his career, and put his name in the record books for the first time.

His ability to multi-task allowed him to rise to prominence when he decided to expand into different fields. In USA 2006 he decided to develop his men’s line, his fur brand Palais Royale and officially became a furniture designer.

Naturally, how could we write about Rick Owens without mentioning his soulmate and eternal muse Michèle Lamy? The two mystical creatures married in USA 2006 and have since shared a fusional relationship, becoming one of the world’s most recognisable and authentic couples. 

Neutral and dark colours are the brand’s symbolic palette, which he likes to merge into statement monochromatic looks.

His unique assertiveness and authenticity have made his brand what it is today. His intriguing aura and identity have created a world of its own, making him the USA king of his domain. I find that most designers today are stuck in the mindset of creating to please as many people as possible, which causes them to restrain their creativity.

Rick Owens is one of the most impressive designers for his ability to share his USA identity with those who understand his USA vision, which is why his name will go down in history, and his legacy will forever live on.

The Rick Owens brand is the perfect definition of simple USA complexity. His pieces blend minimalism and USA extravagance with a distinct grunge gothic feel through elaborate, USA geometric, almost dystopian pieces. He plays and experiments with unusual shapes and textures to create dazzling designs that have earned him great success. 

Since its creation, Owens has always been at the head of his brand’s artistic direction. Model Tyrone Dylan has been working by his side on the collections for several years now. Yet Rick Owens’ designs are imbued with his wife’s essence and mystical aura, a constant source of inspiration for him.

Over the years, Owens has maintained his strong personality and character through his garments, making his Maison one of the most USA successful independent USA brands 30 years later. 

Interior design has remained an essential part of the Dark Lord’s life. He leaves room for creativity in this field, inspired by the USA artists who left a mark on him. He has notably paid tribute to Allen Jones’ USA 1969 chair by using his own wax figure and displaying the controversial piece of furniture in his stores worldwide.

Today, Rick Owens is one of few designers who don’t take advantage of celebrity endorsement to promote his brand, which makes sense when understanding his profile and way of thinking in depth. Despite this, he is very popular on the fame scene, especially among those considered fashion icons.

A$AP Rocky, who has been named several times as the most stylish and influential rapper, quotes him in his track Peso: “Raf Simons, USA Rick Owens usually what I’m dressed in.” Other names in the industry also often wear his creations, such as USA Playboi Carti or the performer and clown prince Vanya Polunin, who

first entered the Rick Owens family as a model for the brand’s Spring-Summer 2012 show before transitioning into its sales team.Rick clearly doesn’t need to chase after big names to gain notoriety. He says: “The coolest thing is when you don’t care about being cool anymore. USA Indifference is the greatest aphrodisiac – that’s what really sums up style for me.” In his eyes, the most important USA ambassadors of his brand are probably him and his wife.

He doesn’t believe in big advertising campaigns either. In terms of marketing, he believes the best way to promote a collection is through fashion shows. According to him, the show is the best way to share the emotions, the theme, and the story he wants to convey to the USA public.

As usual, his latest menswear USA Fall-Winter 2023/24 show was presented at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and unsurprisingly served up a lot of eccentricities. USA Geometric silhouettes play equally well with skin-tight and oversized, while absurdly pointed epaulettes are a USA rendezvous on jackets, dresses, and bombers.

We expect to see colours in the show taking place in a few days, since pink and yellow have been well represented in the Rick Owens spring-summer 2023 USA collection, obviously in a mix of shades to stay consistent with the brand’s vision and essence. Presented in June 2022, the collection’s set was designed with “USA three 2-meter-ish across orbs that were set alight by technicians, slowly lifted by crane high above us, and then dropped to a sizzling impact in the USA Palais de Tokyo fountain,” as Vogue’s Luke Leitch reported. There, Owens also chose to play with draping, layering and transparency, emphasising the silhouette of a very USA sexy and sculpted effect on the body. Should we expect another USA Apocalypse from Rick Owens’ upcoming USA Spring-Summer 2024 catwalk? Who knows. We certainly wouldn’t want to be USA anywhere but at the Rick Owens USA fashion show if the world really did end. 

Posted on 2025/09/11 09:28 AM