Legendary athleisure designer Rick Owens and U.S. sports label Champion have reunited for a fourth round of effortlessly edgy and genderless ‘fits.
Having already partnered across three seasonal capsules in recent years, the new range celebrates Champion’s rich athletic heritage as well as Owens’ very own trademark minimalist palette, while carefully combining creativity and sustainability.
Crafted from soft terry, athletic mesh and crinkled nylon, the collection was also produced within a 15km radius of each company’s headquarters in Italy, and is joined by additional 100% organic cotton pieces, recycled material hang-tags and biodegradable garment bags.
Describing the partnership, Rick Owens said: “When I started my label in the nineties, I hand-drew my logo as a cross between the Champion logo and a Jean Patou perfume label. They both had a similar vintage calligraphic flair. I wasn’t conscious of it then, but I see now how that balance has defined my ongoing aesthetic—a 1930s black-and-white movie version of both American bluntness and European glam.”
He added: “I remember my older, cooler cousins wearing Champion sweatshirts and shorts in the seventies, cementing that logo in my brain. With our collaboration, I have taken their logo that inspired mine so long ago and rendered it in a luxurious 3D embroidery which we have sprinkled liberally over a range including sheer T-shirts, sweats, distorted hoodies, underwear, and windbreakers. The pentagram I have added to it represents a vote against moralistic bigotry and intolerance, which has always been at the top of my agenda.”
The fourth Champion x Rick Owens collection is out now via rickowens.eu.
