“I am a selfish person,” Rick Owens says, as he sips his ice tea watching the sun set on the Arabian gulf. “It really is all about indulging myself. When I’ve thought about other people, it didn’t really work. I’ve tried in the past. I wanted to be a bit more responsible and paid attention to what people wanted, but that was a mistake. It just never worked for me.”
Often referred to as an outsider in the fashion industry, this is how the American designer, 52, describes his success. Known for his less than reverent take on fashion and his monochrome colour palette, sticking with blacks and whites, Owens sits in a unique place in the industry ruled by luxury goods conglomerates and their marketing prowess. That he’s made such a massive success of it, his eponymous label turns more than $50 million (Dh183.6 million) a year, is proof that whatever buzz he’s on, is working.
“I only make stuff that appeals to me,” he continues. “My thing is never going to appeal to everyone and that’s OK. I don’t have to cover a lot of bases like large groups do. They have to appeal to such a large spectrum so being a niche is just fine.”
Owens is in Dubai, a city he calls his second home, to present his limited-edition furniture collection at Design Days. The collection, commissioned by the Paris and London-based Carpenters Workshop Gallery, is among the works of art displayed at the five-day furniture and design fair in Downtown Dubai.
Owens’s wife, muse and collaborator of 20 years, the French artist and entrepreneur Michele Lamy, will also give a presentation at the event, held at the foot of the Burj Khalifa.
“I was asked to do a lecture but I’m not going to do that. It’s going to be a mix of drawings, furniture and everything inspired by the Emirates, with techno music, which will be our way perhaps to explain what we feel about this place,” says Lamy, dressed in her signature black attire, complete with headgear, tattooed fingers and gold teeth.
“She’s going to weave a spell,” Owens adds.
The couple met in Los Angeles when Owens was studying pattern-making and Lamy owned a sportswear company. They’ve been inseparable since, before moving together to Paris where they are now based.
“I just follow her wherever she goes because she takes care of the furniture. She organises the furniture things so I can get out of the house. If it’s by a beach then I’ll come,” says Owens.
The pair are passionate about their love for the UAE.
“It’s kind of like you guys just fast forwarded 200 years in 20 minutes here. There’s something ancient and futuristic happening at the same time that it’s just perfect for me. And it’s almost menacing how fast it is here. And the energy… it’s kind of thrilling,” says Owens. “Where else is it like that in the world?
“Also it feels like Los Angeles. Like Al Quoz, where all the warehouse are on the side of the freeway? It’s just like LA. We haven’t been to LA in 12 years. So it makes this our kind of Palm Springs alternative, living in France.”
Lamy agrees.
“I love coming here, to feel the energy. The culture is so different but at the same time it feels like the same. You can feel the culture of the tribes, the desert and all of the things that turn into these incredible big buildings,” she says.
Owens, whose clothes are stocked at Saks Fifth Avenue Dubai and IF Boutique, also in Dubai, says he’s not planning a Middle East conquest any time soon.
“We have eight stores around the world now but I don’t know if it would work in Dubai. It would be great eventually. Sometimes the moment is right, sometimes it is not. I don’t think it is now,” he says.
But the UAE is where it all happens for him creatively, he says.
“I’m here to prepare all the launches for spring. I have all my papers. I can be on a terrace anywhere but I’d rather be here,” he says. “My head’s clear here. It’s relaxing and it’s a great place to analyse what’s coming for spring.”
