Rick Owens

Gorgeous close-ups of Rick Owens jackets from his fall collection. The craftsmanship is subtle yet incredible. The fluidity and suppleness of the leather and the way it moulds itself to the body is so unlike the bulky leather jackets I've seen.

I came across an informative article on Owens in The Fashion Spot forums. Here are a few choice excerpts:

'... Owens let his clothes speak for themselves, and people responded to his language of destroyed luxury. His talent for combining elegance with grit manifested itself in washed shrunken-leather jackets with super-slim arms and cashmere T-shirts whose seams were irreverently shredded. This was beauty of another sort, without the fatuous glitter.'

'Owens draws inspiration from different sources - his own life is obviously one of them. Goth culture is reflected heavily in his designs, but also punk and glam rock. Modernist architecture and sculpture are among his other influences. "It's like a little ritual for me - I look at the work of Brancusi, Le Corbusier, Luigi Moretti; all of these clean lines that are in exactly the right places in their work remind me that I don't have to make a lot of changes, I don't have to add some more straps to make it interesting, I don't have to do anything superfluous. And all of their creations fit in perfectly with the environment they are in, and that's what I try to do. Of course my environment is a fantasy." The fantasy that Owens manifests in his clothes is apparent in everything he does - from his fascination with artifice and camp, to the names of the colors he uses for his designs: "milk," "pearl," "dust" and "dark shadow." The only color untouched by a name is black.'

"I love the raw feelings of Rick's clothes, the sharply cut forms and his ability to play with proportion that goes to the extreme without becoming cartoonish," he says. "The clothes are both refined and crude, graceful and gothic - there is a balance between heavy brutalism and grace."

The article offers an insight into the personal history and fascinating psyche of Owens, and also touches on the unconventional business model of his eponymous label. A very interesting read.