This week, a new exhibition dedicated to the work of Rick Owens, titled “Rick Owens: Temple of Love,” opens at the Palais Galliera in Paris—the third such retrospective ever given to a living designer, following shows on Azzedine Alaïa in 2013, and Martin Margiela in 2018. On this week’s episode of The Run-Through, Owens joins Nicole Phelps from his office in Paris to discuss how the show came together.
“I did a retrospective like 10 or 15 years ago in Milan, and I only did it because they allowed me full control; I did not want to be interpreted by anybody,” he recalled. “And while I was doing it, I was thinking, Who gets the opportunity to do this? This is like writing your own obituary—you get to define how you want to be represented forever. The show that I did was very bombastic, which is something that I can do; I tend to go there.” He added, “Afterwards I was thinking, If I ever get the chance to do this kind of thing again, I want to do something more quiet, maybe more delicate, more nuanced.” When the call came from the Palais Galliera, he was happy to “submit” to what they wanted to do.
The pair also discuss the first Rick Owens show to take place during New York Fashion Week, thanks to an impromptu call from none other than André Leon Talley. “I picked up the phone one day, and there’s a voice on the line that goes, ‘Hello, this is André Leon Talley. Am I speaking with Rick Owens? And I go, ‘Hey,’ and he said ‘I saw your clothes in the windows at Henri Bendel, and I think you need to meet Anna,’” he recalled. He went on to take part in the famous An American View show sponsored by STYLE.com and Vogue, which took place following 9/11, as part of the fall 2002 collections.
Listen below to learn about how Owens conceptualizes his fashion shows, the importance of the community that has coalesced around his work, and the story behind his “pissing statue.”
