Background and career
Richard Saturnino Owens (born November 18, 1961) is an American fashion designer from Porterville, California. In addition to his main line, Owens has a furniture line and a number of diffusion lines.
Richard Saturnino Owens was raised in San Jose, California. His parents are John (d. 2015) and Concepción "Connie" Owens. His mother is Mexican. Owens was raised in a conservative, Catholic household. After graduating Porterville High School, he moved to Los Angeles, California to study art at Otis College of Art and Design for two years before taking pattern-making and draping courses at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. This led to work in the garment industry, designing copies of designer clothing. Owens was introduced by his then-boyfriend Rick Castro to Michèle Lamy, who was well known in the Los Angeles social scene and owned the "Lamy" sportswear brand.
Owens launched his fashion line in 1994, operating out of a store in Hollywood Boulevard. One of the first boutiques to carry his clothes was Charles Gallay, who was known for carrying avant-garde designers. He gained notability after Kate Moss was photographed by Corrine Day for Vogue Paris in one of his signature leather jackets. According to Owens, the jacket was picked out by the fashion stylist Panos Yiapanis, likely after reading an article mentioning Owens in Dutch Magazine. This attention led to Vogue America sponsoring his first runway, which he titled "Sparrows FW02". Owens also attributes early support by Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, to a phone call made to him by André Leon Talley who was the editor-at-large of Vogue at the time. He moved to Paris in 2003 with his partner Michèle Lamy, a decision that was partially motivated by being mugged in Los Angeles. He set up his home and atelier inside a historic five-story building that previously served as offices for former French President François Mitterrand. His runway collections have been mounted in Paris since then. In 2004, Owens and Michèle Lamy established their own fashion company Owenscorp, and described their business partnership as “asking a gypsy to organize a war with a fascist.” In 2013, Owens exhibited his 'Prehistoric' collection at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London. Owens' design color palette in this seven piece collection stretches from white to black, stopping nowhere in between. "The show is entitled 'Prehistoric' – a name that reflects its inspiration, the origins of humanity, it recalls a mysterious ancient civilization. Its aura is one of spiritual ritual, archaic ceremony and supreme power". A recipient of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent in 2002 and the CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, Owens was also awarded the Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for fashion design, as well as the Fashion Group International Rule Breaker Award in 2007. His first museum exhibition and retrospective, chronicling over 20 years of his life's work, entitled, "Subhuman Inhuman Superhuman" opened at the Triennale di Milano on December 15, 2017. In June 2019, Owens won Menswear Designer of the Year Award at the 2019 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Fashion Awards. Owens has authored four books — L'ai-je bien descendu? (2007), Rick Owens (2011), More Rick Owens (2023), and Rick Owens Furniture (2017), along with two books about Larry LeGaspi, which were published in November 2019 by Rizzoli. He had launched five labels including RICK OWENS, DRKSHDW, RICKOWENSLILIES, SLAB, and HUNRICKOWENS (previously "Palais Royal"). SLAB was a diffusion line that consisted of basic garments with unique finishings such as distressing, oil washing, and waxed coatings. This line was later replaced by his DRKSHDW line in 2005, which would continue the focus on basic garments with cellulose fabrics. In 2018 and 2019, he has collaborated with Birkenstock and French sneaker brand Veja, respectively. The latter collaboration continued for five seasons, with its conclusion announced in November 2021. Owens added to this series of partnerships in 2020, designing capsule collections in collaboration with Moncler and American activewear brand Champion. In 2021, Owens would collaborate with footwear brands Dr. Martens and Converse. In a 2017 interview with WWD, the brand was reported to have brought in $120 million the previous year. Owens noted in the same interview that his label planned to remain independent from corporate investment. In 2019, Owens dedicated his autumn/winter collection, "Larry" to Larry LeGaspi, the eminent designer he considers his creative forefather. He discussed the influence of LeGaspi's work on his own in publicly available shownotes; "For me, as a teenager growing up in Porterville, California, what Larry LeGaspi did was a huge thing—the way he infiltrated middle America with this subversive sensibility [...] [h]e connects with soul culture—black soul culture and music [...] [a]ll of this stuff coming together was very important to this kid in Porterville." And, "I do think of Larry’s as a kind of biblical story... about the glory of lust and vice, something I talk about a lot, but also about dissipation and decline—which I also talk about a lot... When I was 15, I wanted to be dissipated. And now I am, a little bit. But there is also responsibility." In November 2019, Owens returned to Los Angeles for the first time in 16 years to introduce the books. In 2025, Owens entitled his retrospective exhibition at Palais Galliera Paris "Temple of Love" in specific reference to The Sisters of Mercy song "Temple of Love".
Owens is bisexual. Owens married the French designer Michèle Lamy in 2006.
Rick Owens typically produces a menswear and womenswear collection each season. These collections often share the same title and theme.
His Spring/Summer 1998 collection marks his first recorded fashion collection. This collection utilized his signature draping and bias cut patterning he was noted for. Owens used materials such as silks, leathers, and furs for his garments. Imagery for the collection featured American drag queen The Goddess Bunny, who also worked for Owens as a fit model in his studio. This collection is notable for including transgender models and sex workers in the documentation of the collection.
