CITY - Issue 61 - (Page 70)

FURNITURE CREATED BY RICK OWENS RIGHT ; PORTRAIT OF RICK OWENS RIGHT, BOTTOM ; AND A RUNWAY LOOK FROM THE READY TO WEAR FALL COLLECTION, TITLED, “STAG” LEFT . INSIDE OUT I Rick Owens puts his artistic soul into the fashion he creates By Ken Courtney n the past years, the very notion of luxu y has been diluted to the point of no etu n. P eviously ese ved fo items of supe io quality o those with built-in sca city, as with p ecious metals and gems, the luxu y ma ket as we know it today has much mo e to do with the int insic value of a b and as deﬁ ned by ads and media than it does with the actual value of a p oduct. When a bag that’s been mass p oduced at a facto y in China can be sold fo , because it was seen on a celeb ity’s shoulde o because of the millions spent on ma keting and b anding, we can est assu ed — like the ﬁ nancial ma kets at p esent, the luxu y ceiling is about to d op. F om diamonds and gold, to fu and haute coutu e, luxu y and fashion have been bedfellows f om the get go. With coutu ie s on the endange ed species list, the fashion wo ld is le with a black hole that no Ma c Jacobs ad sta ing Posh Spice could eve ﬁ ll. O so I thought . . . F om the f inges of the fashion wo ld eme ges a new wo ld coutu ie . Like his b eth en of yea s gone by, the new wo ld coutu ie ﬁ lls said void, playing the pa t of designe as a tist, but, instead of c eating one-of-a-kind pieces like those by eve yone f om Schiapa elli to Mc ueen, his a tist y is one of the mind, not of the hands of a squad on of emb oide s toiling away without est in a Pa isian atelie . Mind you, the e is no lack of detail o c a with this new coutu ie , as he focuses his time and ene gy wo king a concept, like an a tist wo king towa ds a goal that may take months and yea s to ealize. Seasons don’t ule the wo ld of this new design gu u — his life’s wo k is a slow, methodical climb to a place unknown until one a ives the e, if eve . lthough I’m ce tain he’d disag ee if asked, included in the new gua d of coutu ie is me ican designe Rick Owens. Cu ently esiding in Pa is, Southe n Califo nia-bo n Owens began his fashion ca ee at Otis /Pa sons College of t and Design in Los ngeles. Unhappy with the life of an a t student, Owens d opped out of school befo e g aduation, opting instead to take a patte n making class. F om patte n making class to patte n make , Owens wo ked fo a local Za a-like company, with designe knock-oﬀs. With this one decision, the cou se of Owens’ life took a self-induced tailspin, which led him f om a city so despe ate to become a playe in the fashion wo ld to the epicente of haute coutu e to assume his cu ent post as fashion wo ld da ling. Owens sta ted small with his own label in . cco ding to Wikipedia, his line “found a following, selling exclusively to Cha les Gallay, a pionee ing Los ngeles etaile — who kept Owens in business fo seve al yea s. In , he signed with Italian sales agent Eo Bocci ssociati fo wo ldwide dist ibution, and his p oduction moved to Italy. He began to eceive attention when an image of Kate Moss shot by Co inne Day and styled by Panos iapanis appea ed in Pa is Vogue, featu ing one of Owens’ ﬁtted dist essed leathe jackets.”

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY - Issue 61

CITY - Issue 61 Contents Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment Luscious Life Fast Food Inrogue Temporary Contemporary Diary Savania Davies-Keller & Roberto Crivello Pamela Love Sung-Joo Kim Jerome Berard Destination Dealerships Overly Opulent Inside Out Like a Clock in the Heart Qatar’s Crown Jewel BLING Urge to Splurge Just a Splash Luxe Life Solitaire Equus Where to Buy It Cityscape

CITY - Issue 61

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.