I mentioned Rick Owens in my post yesterday, and needless to say a guy who consistently designs intentionally overlong, body-hugging clothing is not someone I get the chance to mention a lot, but it gives me the excuse to link to this interview with Self Edge’s Kiya Babzani on The Crossfire, in which Kiya tells his Rick Owens story.
…we got an order on the online store a couple of years ago and it’s for four or five different items – a couple of Iron Heart things, a couple of Flat Head things. And the credit card was declined over and over again… and then it went through finally – and that triggers a fraud alert for us. So I’m looking at it and thinking – OK, it’s going to Paris, it’s going to Owenscorp – I don’t know what that is! It doesn’t have someone’s name on it… so I e-mail the person, I didn’t even put it together – Owenscorp. So I e-mail the person and she says, “oh it’s for Rick – he wants these things, sorry if the credit card didn’t go through – he just wants it sent to his studio. And I’m thinking, “holy s—, this is Rick Owens.” It’s his assistant e-mailing me! …
A year goes by and I get an e-mail from the woman at his studio – “Rick lost his favorite flannel [shirt].” It was a red buffalo check from Iron Heart. “Please send another one and charge us.” Well, that was a year before and we didn’t have that flannel anymore. But then I looked and in New York or somewhere, we had it in blue. So I e-mailed her and said, “well, we have it in blue” – and she replied, “no worries, mail it. We’ll dye it.” And that was the end of it. We sent it to her and never heard back. But I thought, “dye it? You can’t dye a buffalo check flannel.” But then I was thinking, “I’m not arguing with Rick Owens.” Maybe Rick Owens has this crazy-ass way of dyeing. It’s a blue and black flannel, how are you going to make it red and black? You can’t, it’s impossible!
The rest of the interview is worth reading, too. Kiya gives one of the best explanations I’ve heard of what differentiates Japanese denim lines and why he chooses to carry the lines he does.
-Pete