For years Rick Owens wore high-heeled boots to the gym. The rare artist wholly committed to his aesthetic principles, he “hated the informal and suburban ethos of sneakers.” In 2021, when Owens began collaborating with Converse, he “corrupted” the Chuck 70: squared the toe, elongated the tongue, doubled the sole. Owens—a California kid who was raised Catholic but gravitated towards sex clubs, the Ramones, and the German artist Joseph Beuys—often talks about corruption. He started his brand in 1994 to “corrupt conformity from within.” Look at his fashion shows: he’s sent male models down the runway in penis-baring tunics and physically strapped models onto the backs of slightly stronger models. On September 28, he will show his spring-summer women’s collection in Paris. For an overview of Owens’s ethos, Rizzoli just published a new monograph on his work.
Owens flies when duty calls. Here, he answers our questionnaire about what he packs, eats, and buys while traveling.
