L’UOMO VOGUE — RICK OWENS — JULY 2019 — LUKE LEITCH

JULY 2019

IN HIS MEASURED DRAWL RICK OWENS RECALLS PORTERVILLE, CALIFORNIA – HIS BIRTHPLACE 57 YEARS AGO – AS ‘THIS VERY BORING TOWN’. HE’S DOWN THE LINE FROM THE PENTHOUSE APARTMENT ON VENICE’S LIDO TO WHICH, IN MOMENTS OF RELATIVE RESPITE FROM THE RHYTHMS OF HIS PARIS-BASED FASHION HOUSE, HE RETREATS. OWENS’S ODYSSEY FROM THAT THEN TO THIS NOW HAS SHAPED ARGUABLY THE MOST ORIGINAL DESIGNER AT WORK IN FASHION TODAY. YET HE IS MORE THAN THE SUM OF THE PARTS OF THAT JOURNEY METAPHOR: THE RAW MATERIAL OF RICK IS ITSELF, EXTREMELY DISTINCT.

VIA MEANDERING CONVERSATION, WE DO THE ARITHMETIC: TALKING THROUGH THE FACTORS OF AN EQUATION WHOSE RESULT IS A DESIGNER WHOSE FAN BASE, APPARENTLY CONTRADICTORILY, IS AS BROAD AS IT IS PARTICULAR. FOLLOWERS OF RICK SPAN A BROAD CHURCH OF AESTHETIC DEMOGRAPHICS THAT RUN FROM HYPEBEAST TO TECH-GOTH VIA ARTISTIC-ASCETIC AND BEYOND. HE HAPPILY CONCURS – ‘IT’S GREAT, ISN’T IT?’ – BEFORE ADDING THAT HIS OWN THEORY AS TO WHY IS BASED LESS ON WHAT HE IS THAN WHAT HE ISN’T.

HE SAYS: ‘THERE’S AN AUTHENTICITY WHICH IS RARE IN THE WORLD NOW. AND WHEN EVERYBODY HAS ACCESS TO SO MUCH INFORMATION FROM EVERY FASHION HOUSE, EVERY SINGLE CONSUMER KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT LENGTHS ARE BEING TAKEN TO SEDUCE THEM. AUDIENCES HAVE SEEN BEHIND THAT CURTAIN. AND WHAT THEY SEE BEHIND THE CURTAIN IS THAT THERE’S A LOT OF CALCULATION IN FASHION. THERE ARE LOTS OF VOICES, LOTS OF COMMITTEE DECISIONS. THERE’S CORRUPTION, THERE’S BRIBERY, THERE ARE CELEBRITIES BEING PAID TO ENDORSE OBJECTS. AND THERE’S PHOTOSHOP, AND THERE’S SURGERY… THERE’S A LOT OF FALSENESS.’

SO THEY SEE IT’S A RACKET?

‘YEAH! AND SO WHEN THEY SEE THAT SOMEBODY IS DOING THEIR BEST TO TELL THE TRUTH – TO TELL THEIR TRUTH – AS A SINGLE VOICE AS OPPOSED TO VIA COMMITTEE, THEN I THINK THERE’S SOMETHING VERY COMPELLING IN THAT. BECAUSE WE’RE NOT INTERESTED IN A GROUP OF ARTISTS; WE’RE INTERESTED IN A SINGLE VOICE THAT IS PURE. ALTHOUGH I’M NOT CALLING MYSELF AN ARTIST.’

HA! FOR A SECOND THERE I’D ASSUMED THAT WHAT OWENS WAS GOING TO TAKE PAINS NOT TO CALL HIMSELF WAS ‘PURE’. BECAUSE THE CONVENTIONALLY IMPURE – AN OTHERNESS VARIOUSLY ARTICULATED VIA DECADENCE, OR SEX, OR GLAMOUR, OR GRIME – HAS ALWAYS BEEN A KEY INSTRUMENT IN THE OWENS ORCHESTRA.

TAKE HIS MOST RECENT COLLECTION, AUTUMN/WINTER 2019-20, IN WHICH THAT IMPURITY WAS ARTICULATED VIA A HOMAGE TO THE WORK OF LARRY LEGASPI. THIS HITHERTO NEGLECTED-BY-HISTORY AMERICAN DESIGNER SPEARHEADED THE SEXED-UP, SCI-FI, SLEAZY SUBVERSIVENESS OF ‘70S POP MUSIC COSTUME THROUGH HIS WORK OUTFITTING LABELLE AND KISS. AS WELL AS THE LOVING LEGASPI REFERENCES IN HIS COLLECTION — TOWERING ‘LARRY’ PLATFORMS AND LIGHTNING-BOLT HARDWARE – OWENS ALSO, NO SLIGHT ASIDE, WROTE A BOOK TITLED LEGASPI BY RICK OWENS. YET OWENS’S SUBJECT WAS NOT ONLY THE DESIGNER WHO SO INFLUENCED HIM. ‘THE BOOK W AS APPROVED BY LARRY’S WIDOW, BUT WHEN I SPOKE TO HER I TOLD HER THAT IT WAS ALSO VERY MUCH A BOOK ABOUT ME. IT WAS ABOUT WHAT THE WORK OF LARRY MEANT TO ME WHEN I WAS 13 – GLAMOUR, KABUKI, TESTOSTERONE. MY PERSPECTIVE ON LARRY WAS THAT I WAS SEEING THE BLACK-AND-WHITE EPIC MOVIES OF HOLLYWOOD MIXED WITH A SWEATY, SLEAZY, BACKSTAGE ENERGY OF ROCK CLUBS – ALL OF THAT TINSEL AND SPANGLE – THAT BECOMES GLAMOUR ON STAGE. AND THAT’S WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED AND CREATED FOR MYSELF.’

HERE THEN IS A HANDY STARTING POINT FOR CATALOGUING SOME PRIME INGREDIENTS IN OWENS’S ORIGINAL RECIPE. BACK IN PORTERVILLE, OWENS WAS A SINGLE CHILD RAISED BY MOTHER CONNIE (A TEACHER) AND FATHER JOHN (A SOCIAL WORKER) WHO REFUSED TO HAVE A TV IN THE HOUSE. FOR ENTERTAINMENT RICK RAIDED HIS DAD’S LIBRARY OF MUSIC (MOSTLY CLASSICAL) AND BOOKS (A FAIR FEW OF WHICH WERE DEDICATED TO EPIC PRE-COLOUR HOLLYWOOD MOVIES).

‘THOSE BIBLICAL EPICS… THEY REALLY DWELT ON THE SINNING. THEY RELISH IT. THERE ARE THOSE GREAT, LONG, LURID SCENES, CHRISTIANS WAITING TO BE EATEN BY LIONS, PEOPLE BEING RIPPED APART, VIRGINS BEING ATTACKED BY ALLIGATORS… ALL THROUGH THE 1930S BLACK-AND-WHITE FILTER WITH THE GIRLS IN WHITE BIAS CUT GOWNS. THEN, AFTER ALL THE DWELLING ON SIN, THERE IS SUDDENLY A MORAL RESOLUTION. A SENSE THAT THE WHOLE THING HAS A HIGHER PURPOSE. AND I THINK THAT MIX OF THE LURID, THE GLAMOUR, THE BLACK AND WHITE, AND THE MORALITY FLOATING OVER THE WHOLE THING WAS A SUPER HUGE INFLUENCE. THAT IS KIND OF WHAT I DO: THE BLACK AND WHITE THING.’

WHILE YOUNG OWENS WAS CULTIVATING THE LUBRICIOUS INSINUATIONS OF SWORD AND SANDAL EPICS, HE WAS SIMULTANEOUSLY ENGAGED IN ANOTHER REAL-LIFE TUSSLE BETWEEN INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE. ‘I WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL WITH NUNS IN HABITS AND LONG ROBES, WHICH WAS PRETTY GLAMOROUS IN PORTERVILLE. AND EVERY MORNING WE WENT TO MASS AND WE WERE ALL LOOKING AT THIS HOT NAKED GUY HANGING FROM THE CROSS. SO THERE WAS A LOT TO STIMULATE!’

AS A TEENAGER, SAYS OWENS, ‘I THINK I WAS REALLY EASY TO RAISE – UNTIL I WASN’T, WHEN I REALLY, REALLY WASN’T!’ HIS PARENTS’ CULTURAL CLOISTERING – SO FRUITFUL IN THE LONG RUN – FELT SO SUFFOCATING THEN. ‘I WAS VERY RESENTFUL WHEN I WAS YOUNG. I WAS DESPERATE TO GO AND HANG AT MY FRIEND’S HOUSE AND WATCH THE MUNSTERS.’

ONCE OF AGE, CIRCA 1979, OWENS DECAMPED TO LOS ANGELES IN ORDER TO STUDY ART AND LEARN THAT HE DIDN’T WANT TO PURSUE A CAREER IN IT. HE PIVOTED TO PATTERN CUTTING, AND IRONICALLY ENOUGH SOME OF THIS AS-YET-UNFLEDGED FASHION ORIGINAL’S FIRST PAID JOBS WERE RUNNING UP BACK STREET COPIES OF OTHER PEOPLE’S FASHION DESIGNS. THIS PERIOD ALSO REPRESENTED HIS ENTRÉE INTO A TATTERED AND GRIMY BUT STIMULATING EXCITING DEMIMONDE. ‘IT WAS STILL VERY MUCH ABOUT MY HOLLYWOOD NOSTALGIA. I WAS LIVING ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, BUT IT HAD SEEN ITS HEYDAY LONG BEFORE. WHEN I ARRIVED THERE WAS STILL GLAMOUR, BUT IT WAS DECOMPOSED, FALLING APART AND CORRUPTED. WHICH OF COURSE IS WHY I WAS THERE. I WANTED TO BE CORRUPTED. AND I WAS!’

THESE WERE OWENS’ HARD-PARTYING YEARS. AFTER AROUND A DECADE OF THIS SCENE, HE BECAME CLEAN AND SERENE FOLLOWING A MOMENT OF CLARITY IN THE MIDST OF THE MISTS OF A LACK OF IT. THE TRANSITION WAS PARTIALLY ACTIONED VIA MICHÈLE LAMY, WHOM HE HAD MET DURING A WORK GIG IN 1988 AND WITH WHOM HE BEGAN A LOVE STORY THAT CONTINUES TO THIS DAY.

ALSO CONTINUING TO THIS DAY IS A HEALTHY FASCINATION WITH THE UNHEALTHY BUT INVIGORATING NATURE OF REVELRY. WITH GREAT DELIGHT, OWENS REPORTS THAT HE RECENTLY ATTENDED A NIGHT AT PARIS’S PÉRIPATE VENUE THAT KINDLED AFRESH HIS ENTHUSIASM FOR DEBAUCHERY: ‘THE PÉRIPATE IS THIS BIG CONCRETE BUNKER WHICH HAS ALMOST PALLADIAN PROPORTIONS BUT ON A SUPERHUMAN SCALE. AND THE MUSIC WAS JUST THIS SUPER-SWEATY TECHNO. THE CROWD IS VERY MIXED: THERE ARE STRAIGHT COUPLES, GAY COUPLES, AND THE DANCE FLOOR IS LIT AT THE FRONT WHERE THE DJ IS. THEN IT’S KIND OF DARK AROUND THE EDGES, AND EVERYBODY IS FUCKING. WHICH IS WHAT A CLUB SHOULD BE.’

OWENS ADDS, HOWEVER, THAT THE ONLY BAR HE HITS THESE DAYS IS THE SALAD BAR. ‘I HAVE GREAT AFFECTION FOR THAT STUFF – IN A NOSTALGIC, PATERNAL WAY – AND I LOVE ENGAGING WITH IT, BUT I’M JUST NOT GOOD AT IT ANYMORE. YOU GET OLDER AND YOUR BODY CAN’T CONSUME WHAT IT USED TO… BUT I LOVE SEEING IT. IT’S THRILLING TO SEE BEAUTY AND DANGER HAND IN HAND.’

THE THRILL THAT LURKS IN DARKNESS AT THE EDGE OF LIGHT IS NOT A BAD DEFINITION OF OWENS’S RAW PRODUCT. HE USED TO CALL HIS AESTHETIC ‘GLUNGE’, A MIX OF GLAMOUR AND GRUNGE, AND IT WAS ONE HE STARTED DEFINING IN FABRIC UNDER HIS OWN NAME IN 1994. WITHIN A FEW YEARS HE HAD FOUND A PROTEAN AUDIENCE OF CLIENTS, INCLUDING COURTNEY LOVE, WHO WERE DRAWN TO HIS SUMPTUOUSLY CUT BUT POWERFULLY BATTERED LEATHER JACKETS AND T-SHIRTS IN ORIGINALLY LUXURIOUS FABRICS TREATED TO SEEM AS DECOMPOSED AS HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD.

BY 2001, DEMAND OUTSTRIPPED OWENS’S CAPACITY TO MEET IT FROM HIS STUDIO, AND HE WENT INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH ELSA LANZO AND LUCA RUGGERI – WHO TODAY ARE RESPECTIVELY THE CEO AND COMMERCIAL MANAGER OF THE LABEL’S HOLDING COMPANY, OWENSCORP. ‘THEY HAVE BEEN WITH ME SINCE THE VERY FIRST NEW YORK SHOW,’ SAYS OWENS. ‘IT’S LIKE A MIRACLE. TO BE WITH PARTNERS THAT ALLOW YOU TO BE AS CREATIVE AS YOU WANT AND WHO DON’T BLINK AT ANYTHING – THEY JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN. THAT IS THE MIRACLE. IT’S VERY UNUSUAL IN THIS BUSINESS TO HAVE A LONG MARRIAGE LIKE THAT, SO I’VE BEEN VERY LUCKY WITH BOTH MY MARRIAGES.’

THE FIRST NEW YORK SHOW, IN 2002, WAS THE RESULT OF OWENS’S SUDDEN PROPULSION DOWN ONE OF THE FASHION LANDSCAPE’S MOST TUMULTUOUS BUT POTENTIALLY FRUITFUL RAPIDS: HEARTY SUPPORT FROM AMERICAN VOGUE. FIRST SALLY SINGER AND THEN ANNA WINTOUR CHAMPIONED OWENS IN THE TITLE, WHICH THEN SPONSORED THAT FIRST SHOW. IN SHORT ORDER THIS LED TO A CFDA PERRY ELLIS AWARD, HIS HIRING BY A FRENCH FUR HOUSE, AND A MOVE IN 2003 WITH LAMY TO PARIS TO DO THAT JOB AND BUILD HIS OWN LINE. THOSE RAPIDS PROVIDED A POWERFUL ACCELERATION. BUT AS OWENS RECALLS IT, HE WAS IN TWO MINDS ABOUT GETTING ON BOARD IN THE FIRST PLACE. ‘I WAS TEMPTED NOT TO DO IT BECAUSE I WAS THINKING THEN THAT MY AESTHETIC WAS PRETTY NARROW, VERY GREY, AND BLACK AND WHITE – JUST ME AND MY VISION. AND HOW LONG WOULD THAT REALLY LAST IN THIS FASTER WORLD? I THOUGHT I COULD STAY QUIETLY DESIGNING, SELLING TO A FEW STORES AND DOING MY THING. OR I COULD STEP INTO THE SPOTLIGHT, IN WHICH CASE I’D HAVE TO BE COMPLETELY NEW EVERY SEASON, AND THAT REALLY INTIMIDATED ME.’ HE PAUSES: ‘BUT IT’S NOT INTIMIDATING ANYMORE. BECAUSE I LEARNT HOW TO EXTEND THAT VISION. AND ALSO WHAT WAS REALLY GREAT, AND WHAT I’M VERY GRATEFUL FOR, IS THAT SOMEHOW THE FASHION WORLD DECIDED TO TOLERATE MY PACE. AND MY PACE IS DIFFERENT FROM EVERYBODY’S ELSE’S.’

HERE, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE INTERVIEW, I SUSPECT OWENS IS BEING A MITE DISINGENUOUS. AS WHEN, SHORTLY LATER, HE REFLECTS ON HIS RECENT CFDA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD BY SAYING: ‘THAT TOOK ME BY SURPRISE A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE I’D NEVER REALLY ENGAGED IN THE FASHION WORLD, ESPECIALLY IN NEW YORK, AND I THOUGHT I WAS INVISIBLE.’

PSHAW. AMERICAN FASHION IS SHORT ON ORIGINALS, AND WHEN IT PRODUCES THEM THEY TEND TO DEFINE LOOKS THAT ARE INHERENTLY CONSERVATIVE TEMPLATES – SOMETHING WHICH APPLIES, TO BE FAIR, TO MUCH OF FASHION. OWENS IS THE EXCEPTION TO THAT, SO HOW COULD THE CFDA NOT WANT TO CLAIM HIM AS ONE OF ITS OWN? AND WHILE HIS GREY, BLACK-AND-WHITE AESTHETIC HAS REMAINED A LANGUAGE AS FUNDAMENTALLY CONSISTENT AS PALLADIO’S (ALTHOUGH THERE HAVE BEEN FLASHES OF DISSENT VIA PUTTY AND PINK ALONG THE WAY), HIS COLLECTIONS AND SHOWS HAVE ALWAYS FEATURED HANDBRAKE VARIATIONS IN BOTH THEME AND EXECUTION: ENOUGH TO KEEP EVEN THE SHORTEST ATTENTION SPAN FOCUSED. RECENT EXAMPLES INCLUDE THE STOMPING STEP TEAM SHOW OF SPRING 2014 WOMENSWEAR, THE PENIS-FLASHING AUTUMN/WINTER 2015 ‘SPHINX’ MENSWEAR SHOW (A FASHION-FLASHINGLY BOLD DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN A CORPORATE WORLD), THE MONUMENTAL ‘DIRT’ COLLECTION OF SPRING 2018 (WHOSE LAND-ART-INSPIRED STAGING WAS SET TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE FEEL LIKE THE INSIGNIFICANT SPECKS IN THE UNIVERSE WE ARE), AND THIS SUMMER’S SMOKE-FUMED MEN’S COLLECTION OF ‘BRUTALIST SEQUIN’-ETCHED OWENSWEAR SET AROUND A FLAME-ENGULFED TOWER OF BABEL. THESE ARE HARDLY THE WORK OF A CREATIVE WALLFLOWER.

SHOWTIME, SAYS OWENS: ‘IS ONE OF THE CALMEST TIMES; BECAUSE WHEN I PUT THE COLLECTION TOGETHER I DON’T HAVE ANY LOOSE ENDS, I DON’T CHANGE MY MIND AND I DON’T FREAK OUT. I DON’T FEEL PRESSURE AND IN FACT I LOVE THE SENSE OF PURPOSE THAT THAT RHYTHM OF SHOWS GIVES YOU. I’M GRATEFUL FOR IT, BECAUSE WE’VE ALL SEEN WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY LEAD AIMLESS LIVES. IT ENDS IN TEARS. SO TO ALWAYS HAVE DEADLINES IS PERFECT. IT DIVIDES YOUR LIFE INTO CHEWABLE SEGMENTS.’

DOES HE REALLY NEVER FREAK OUT? ‘I GO WITH THE FLOW AND DO WHAT FEELS RIGHT, TRUSTING THAT THERE’S A REASON FOR IT, AND THAT SOMEHOW MY SUBCONSCIOUS HAS ACCUMULATED A COMPOSITION – A RECIPE – THAT MAKES SENSE… I NEVER LOOK AT IT AND THINK ‘THIS IS GOING TO BLOW EVERYONE AWAY’, AND I NEVER LOOK AT IT THINKING ‘THIS IS KIND OF SUB-PAR’. USUALLY I THINK ‘THIS IS APPROPRIATE FOR THE TRAJECTORY OF WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING’.’

SO HOW TO SKETCH THAT EQUATION TO CRACK THE CODE OF OWENS’S ORIGINALITY? HOW ABOUT (AS A WORKING DRAFT): CLOISTERED YOUTH + HIGH CULTURE + CATHOLIC IMAGERY X DISSOLUTION ÷ REDEMPTION, √ GRIME OVER GLAMOUR … ALL AS A SUBSET OF AN INTRINSICALLY UNCONVENTIONAL SOUL?