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With his provocative and subversive approach to design, Rick Owens has been a transformative force in fashion since he founded his label in 1994. This essential volume is the first critical appraisal of Owens’s work, documenting the evolution of nearly three decades of the designer’s inimitable worldview.
Owens remains one of the most daring and influential fashion designers working today. Often described for his “a-grunge-meets-glamor” aesthetic, Owens has cultivated a devoted international following. In his creations, grace and grit are paired with an obsession with structural transformation and movement, where diaphanous, flowing shapes contrast with opaque forms and sharp edges, an approach to formal invention that is complemented by a mania for new and often exotic materials.
Timed to coincide with the first comprehensive show of the designer’s work taking place at the Palais Galliera in Paris in summer 2025, the scope and breadth of this exhibition promises to be a treat to both longtime fans and the uninitiated. Owens will reimagine the grand nineteenth-century palace housing the museum, with temporary installations that will serve as vitrines to his many creations. In effect dividing the book between the conception of showcases and the precious objects that they display within, the curatorial essays bookending this visual narrative will attempt to describe the multidisciplinary, even architectural approach Owens has to his creations.
About the author
Rick Owens is an American fashion designer; he launched his eponymous line in Los Angeles in 1994, before moving to Paris in 2003. Miren Arzalluz is a fashion historian and the director of the Palais Galliera. Alexandre Samson is a fashion historian and head of the contemporary design department at the Palais Galliera.
Summary
With his provocative and subversive approach to design, Rick Owens has been a transformative force in fashion since he founded his label in 1994. This essential volume is the first critical appraisal of Owens’s work, documenting the evolution of nearly three decades of the designer’s inimitable worldview.
Owens remains one of the most daring and influential fashion designers working today. Often described for his “a-grunge-meets-glamor” aesthetic, Owens has cultivated a devoted international following. In his creations, grace and grit are paired with an obsession with structural transformation and movement, where diaphanous, flowing shapes contrast with opaque forms and sharp edges, an approach to formal invention that is complemented by a mania for new and often exotic materials.
Timed to coincide with the first comprehensive show of the designer’s work taking place at the Palais Galliera in Paris in summer 2025, the scope and breadth of this exhibition promises to be a treat to both longtime fans and the uninitiated. Owens will reimagine the grand nineteenth-century palace housing the museum, with temporary installations that will serve as vitrines to his many creations. In effect dividing the book between the conception of showcases and the precious objects that they display within, the curatorial essays bookending this visual narrative will attempt to describe the multidisciplinary, even architectural approach Owens has to his creations.
