Rick Owens: new diffusion + furniture lines

[Lena]

Rick seems uber busy

Rick Owens is pumping up his design world.

The muscle-bound Los Angeles transplant said he plans to launch a diffusion line and a furniture collection, both of which he will present here for 10 days alongside his men's wear collection, starting this weekend.

The designer said both projects underscore recent efforts to grow his signature business, even as he continues to design the fur collection for the house of Revillon, for which he acquired the production license late last year. Owens declined to pinpoint the size of his signature business.

"We're not part of a big group and there's a lot of competition," said Owens over the phone from his factory in Italy. "So we have to try harder — and we are. I feel pretty confident and proud of what we're doing now."

Owens said he considers the diffusion line — called Lilies — a kind of "cruise collection," which he will present twice yearly in July and January.

"It's an all-jersey collection, which goes back to the point from which I really started," he said. "The shapes are elegant, but translated into the most familiar, cozy jerseys," he said.

Owens described the women's diffusion line as about 20 to 40 percent less expensive than his signature collection.

"It will have a lot of the classic pieces I've done in the past," he said. "I don't believe in disposable fashion. If a piece is great in the past, it's great today."

Meanwhile, Owens called the furniture, which he will produce in-house with the help of an artisan who once worked for Gaetano Pesce, an extension of his aesthetic vision.

Made in materials such as plywood and resin, it includes a chaise longue, a sofa, chairs, lamps and a curved screen "covered with industrial insulation foam."

"The shapes are formal, but made of transitional materials," said Owens. "I wanted something with a sense of permanence, something that was difficult to move."

extracts from wwd

 

[Meg]

I like the idea of the diffusion line because I think you can get his basic shapes, pieces and fabrics without his overpriced price point. But at the same time I feel like why is he branching out so early, though I'm sure he has a dedicated client base, I just don't consider him that big....

 

[liberty33r1b]

i think this sounds good.....it should be a great point to expand his costumer base.

 

[faust]

argh... too fast too soon. as much as i like rick's clothes - i don't think he has shown enough versatility for the main line itsefl - let alone a diffusion line... thanks for the topic, Lena.

 

[Spacemiu]

Soudns nice.

Doesn't he already have Slab as a diffusion line though?


Rick has actually been around for mroe than 10 years, i believe, just selling to stores in LA. he just became visible to the press recently though.

 

[orlem]

The thing I like about Owens is that his work has such an identity that you can practically see his face and long hair when you look at the clothes up close; there's nothing else for me to associate his asymmetrical knits with, they just seem to mesh with his person, if that makes any sense. So, I don't know if that'll stay the same with a diffusion line, but his collection label is totally too expensive.

 

[andrew]

Speaking of his main collection, it must be strange for an in-shape designer such as Rick to be something like an XL-XXL in your own collection.

That said, I look forward to a diffusion line. His basic menswear items are ultrasweet.

 

[meme527]

Owens branches out

By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune

TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2005

Rick Owens stretches his tall frame across a monumental, modernist couch and explains why he has added furniture to his pantheon of men's and women's designs and his Revillon furs.
"I wanted to create something for the apartment - and now this is my favorite room in the building," he said, referring to the studio where he is in the process of turning resin and plywood into a white table. He describes it as a "wedding cake." But, with its embedded toothy skulls, it seems more like a voodoo accessory.
The couches, chairs and tactile tree trunk of a lamp are best described as retro-futuristic, meaning the modernist canons of the Le Corbusier era have been given a space age look with the translucent resin and spongy seats.
"It's not like I planned on producing it - but I would like it if someone wanted to do a limited edition," said Owens.
To Revillon, for which he now has the license, the designer has brought what he calls a "real summer collection," meaning light, formless pieces to be worn like accessories. They come in leather with ostrich-like blisters or in what Owens describes rapturously as "Chinese toad."
New too is the "Lilies" collection of classic ultra-fine jersey pieces in the designer's signature mud-colored neutrals. That joins a range of "Dark Shadow" denim, with smudgy effects, and the main fashion lines. For the menswear, three years in Paris seems to have affected the Owens casual West Coast style.
"Instead of soft and drape-y, it is a little bit sharper and fitted to the back," says Owens of the men's range for Italy's Concordia.

there may be more to this article, i had some trouble with my browser

 

[kit]

RICK OWENS : Bones , Skulls , and Great Tailoring

From Fashion Wire Daily

By Godfrey Deeny

Skulls, Chinese toad and ostrich eggs are just a few of the unexpected materials used in the latest creative display by Rick Owens, the American designer whose fertile imagination have won him a unique place in the Paris world of style, and now furniture.

Owens latest development is a collection of furniture that he introduced in his great Place de Palais Bourbon headquarters/home on Tuesday.

Aeronautic chairs done in bent, raw plywood, felt, goats-skin and plaster were used in creating the lordly yet downtown collection of chairs, chaise long and coffee tables, one of which was composed of ostrich eggs and real human skulls, teeth and all.

“When we moved in here, we realized we needed some furniture and discovered this great local guy, who is tremendous at making things. Only trouble was he really didn’t like the skulls. When I told them what they were he didn’t talk to me for three days,” smiled Owens after a Fauchon buffet lunch on his back terrace.

Back inside, his spring summer 2005 collection marks a significant shift for Owens to far more tailored clothing. Some impeccably cut suits with modern sartorial touches – like five working buttonholes on the sleeves – were an agreeable surprise from a designer who greeted us in chopped off denim shorts, distressed T-shirt and old boots.

But his most to die for items were black lizard trench coats, bombers in satin that looked more like wet leather and some remarkable blousons in the aforementioned Chinese toad. “At least, I think that’s what it is. The supplier was very mysterious,” he shrugs.

Though not officially listed on the Chambre Syndicale calendar, the presentation certainly drew the right folks – Jeffrey Kalinsky from the iconic Meatpacking boutique, Arena Homme Plus’ entire editorial team and Nick Sullivan, fashion director of American Esquire.

With sunlight flickering through a blustery wind and sky crowded with huge cumulus clouds, guests took turns on the terrace overlooking the garden of France’s Ministry of Defense.

“The other day scores of soldiers with plumed helmets lined up to be inspected by the minister and some visiting person. It looked all so quaint and French, except there was this crowd of longhaired freaks up here on our terrace gazing down,” laughs Rick.

“No wonder they sent somebody over to inspect us. They keep complaining why are you taking photos, do you want one of the minister. And I’m like, ‘lighten up,’ it’s fashion we have to make images,” chuckles Rick, as his lunch guest imbibed a small glass of an obscure but very fine white wine made of Viognier grapes.

​

 

[Spacemiu]

the furniture sounds amazing!

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Yes. I think he he has an overall good sense of design. It will be interesting to his sensibilities applied to furniture...maybe even architecture some day??!

 

[faust]

pix courtesy of jcreport.com

kinda freaky, but i dig the black chair with fur

 

[MulletProof]

^i like that bed thing in the last photo.

 

[Spacemiu]

I love the furnitue, it's very strange.

 

[travolta]

i like the second chair posted. the skull table and the black fur chair seem very literal, but maybe that's a good thing.

 

[Kora]

Faust! I really LOVE the Owens Daybed!It's something I would love to own.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Actually I must say I hate the furniture.