Rick Owens is undeniably one of the most important designers of our generation. His draping cuts and street goth looks have pervaded mainstream culture and high-fashion alike. So maybe it's a surprise it's taken someone this long to bandy about the comparison between him and one of America's greatest designers, Ralph Lauren. The designer speaks on the similarities as well as his partnership with wife Michele Lamy, who is set to appear in music videos for A$AP Rocky and FKA Twigs, in a feature from AnOther Mag.
"I am a reaction to Ralph Lauren,” the designer tells AnOther. "That preppy thing, in love with the British aristocracy; a whole fake world that really wants to be royal." Using Europe as touchstones while operating primarily off of American culture is something both Lauren and Owens are guilty of. There is also a comparison to Lauren's all-American pack of golden retrievers: "we have ugly blackbirds that serve no purpose," Owens says. "And bees."
Lamy speaks on her own ventures, which includes roles in two music videos. She will play Rocky's mother in a video with the rapper. "I sit on a bench in Hyde Park, give him a letter and send him on his mission," she divulges. For FKA Twigs, "I am like some kind of witch," she says before lamenting, "I’m always a witch."
Owens also explains the inspiration behind his recent Spring/Summer 2016 collection, which was based around the classic M-65 bomber jacket. "Every man wants to be heroic," Owens says as a reference to the way the outerwear can symbolize both military heroism as well as subversive power. "Male aggression always fascinates me," he says. "Whenever I do a men’s collection they are always about self-loathing; how petty, how selfish, how vain I am."
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