Rick Owens

Rick Owens established his namesake label in Los Angeles in 1994, developing a dark, tactile approach to clothes that joined Hollywood glamour to the worn surfaces of grunge. Draped jersey and close-fitting leather jackets supplied an early vocabulary. The interest was already in how a garment could transform the body while retaining the intimacy of something repeatedly worn.

The move to Paris in 2003 gave the label a new stage. Owens and Michèle Lamy established Owenscorp the following year, building a business around a highly personal creative world. Italian production supported clothes whose apparent roughness depended on a skilled understanding of pattern and construction.

In menswear, elongated tops, dropped proportions and heavy footwear alter the balance of the figure. A narrow leather jacket can share a wardrobe with a flowing tunic or an enormous pair of trousers. Black is an anchor, yet the silhouette does more than the color to establish the identity. The clothes invite men to occupy space differently, often loosening the usual boundaries between masculine and feminine dress.

DRKSHDW extends that language into denim and workwear, while furniture developed with Lamy brings related forms into the home. Under its founder’s artistic direction, the Paris-based house connects the intimacy of a T-shirt to the spectacle of a runway show. Both begin with the same proposition that getting dressed can give an outsider a world of their own.