Rick Owens: story of a rebellious talent

We at Galleria Cavour have come to love him thanks also to his incredible collaborations with Moncler: that of Rick Owens is a contemporary fashion story of talent, provocation and research. He is defined as the cursed poet of fashion, and indeed his creations have always moved in a skilful balance between the sacred and the profane, irony and provocation, surrealism and futurism.

Born in Porterville, California, in 1962, the designer soon left the United States for Paris, where he soon found public and critical success. In a world where young fashion designers struggle to emerge, he, inspired by the style of the Japanese schools of Miyake and Yamamoto, immediately stands out for an aesthetic that is defined as glunge, or the crasis between the words glamour and grunge.

The eponymous brand, which debuted in 1994, tells of an intense love affair with fashion but also with Michele Lamy, muse and artistic partner who later also became a lifelong companion. Without her, Owens’ aesthetic would not have become the same that continues to enchant and enthral admirers around the world today.

Theirs is a visceral bond and their creations are the vision of an imaginary universe that they enjoyed building together. The aesthetics of the couple are so disruptive that they are living manifestos of the brand: no one embodies the creations of the maison better than they do.

Another fundamental woman in the designer’s life and career was undoubtedly Anna Wintour, the very powerful director of Vogue America, who with pioneering flair was among the first to believe in and promote Owens. Light, flowing dresses, often in shades of black and grey or in the purest white: his works always appear ethereal and capable of embodying both the concept of heaven and hell. The American designer is also to be credited with being one of the first to bring to the catwalk an inclusive beauty made up of bodies and shapes different from the canons of the fashion system when no one was yet talking about body positivity.

His last fashion show in the presence of 200 models in total white during Paris Fashion Week remains etched in all our imaginations: yet another aesthetic revolution of a living legend.