Rick Owens in London: Pioneer of Glunge and Location

 

When the Rick Owens store opened in 2009, South Audley street was not known for high fashion though it was located a stone’s throw from Mount Street. Since then, brands such as Erdem and Balmain have followed Owens both respectively opening flagship there in 2015. The move is perhaps archetypal of a designer known for literally and figuratively venturing into uncharted spaces.

Drawing from architecture, design and art as an equilibrium in his creative process, Rick Owens liked the idea of having  Sadie Coles’s gallery close by and the character of the buildings on the street.

The California native revealed that to envision the narrative and design of a store he has prototypes installed in his Parisian studio to test out the proportions, textures and lighting effects. He also dissects every cm of the floorpans from his phone, in order to handle a store launch without sometimes ever having to physically be present. He leaves it all to his team to represent the essence of the brand, therefore minimizing travel time to spend more time working in his studio.

Rick Owens’s fellow Parisian  architect  Joseph Dirand (also behind Balmain and Givenchy in Paris, Balenciaga in Tokyo, Alexander Wang in Beijing to name a few) materialized the mystical and provocative essence of the brand for the London store. The space also includes a waxed sculpture head of the designer on a platter created by Highams Park based Gems Studio.

 

The London store, compared to the Paris and the New York locations, needed a “classical mood” due to the historic character of the property. The 3800 sq ft space is comprised of concrete benches and just pure plain white walls. It is a two-storey flagship with a feature grey textured wall part of the staircase leading to the basement. The store reflects the brand: pure lines, minimal colors, a dash of eccentricity and underlying tension.

Rick Owens’s store is located on 64 S Audley St, London W1K 2QT

 

Text by: Tamara Akcay