Fashionpedia

Rick Owens

"I try to make clothes the way Lou Reed does music --minimal chord changes, and direct. It is sweet but kind of creepy. It's about giving everything I make a worn, softened feeling. It's about an elegance being tinged with a bit of the barbaric, the sloppiness of something dragging and the luxury of not caring. It is about using sable as the lining under a very humble jacket, the luxury is all hers."

A Los Angeles fixture, Owens started making clothing under his own name in 1994; however, it was a photo of Kate Moss in French Vogue wearing one of Owen's distressed leather jackets that initially gained him notice. In 2002, the same year as the publication of that photo, Owens was the recipient of the CFDA Emerging Talent award. His moody, toned, draped and deconstructed designs, asymmetrical dresses and fitted jackets with jagged hems, have been worn for years by loyal fans like Courtney Love, Madonna and Helena Bonham Carter. More recently, Patricia Field selected some of his looks to demonstrate the fashion-forwardness of charachter Emily Blunt in 'The Devil Wears Prada'.

Now a resident of Paris, Rick Owens has opened a shop in the Palais Royal, where he debuted his expanded line which included furniture as well as various clothing lines from the younger and more affordable Lillies and the denim range named Dark Shadow to the very exclusive fur collection Palais Royal. His second store in New York's Tribeca opened in the Summer of 2008.

Life Facts:
This "glamour meets grunge" designer is on a roll gradually building a fashion house that epitomizes his unique twist on sophistication and luxury. A recent recipient of the Cooper Hewitt National Design award, Rick Owens believes that fashion "isn't about displaying one's wealth, but rather giving the woman a selfish pleasure". The fashionistas at MyCloset.com hope that Rick Owens is selfishly pleasuring us for a long time to come.