On June 28, 2025, Rick Owens opens Temple of Love, a large-scale exhibition at the Musée Galliera in Paris. It will be the designer’s first retrospective in six years. WWD writes about it.
The exhibition will feature a recreation of Rick’s California bedroom, which he shared with his wife, Michelle Lami, and 30 brutalist cement sculptures. In addition, more than 100 archival models, documents, videos, installations, and pieces from his collection will be shown.
Owens’ last major exhibition, Rick Owens’s Subhuman Inhuman Superhuman, was held at the Triennale Museum in Milan from 2017 to 2018.
This year, the designer celebrates the 30th anniversary of the eponymous brand, which he launched in 1994 in the United States. In 2001, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour noticed the unusual fashion newcomer: she filmed Kate Moss in a Rick Owens jacket. She also helped with the New York Fashion Week show. This opened the door to the industry for Owens, and a year later, he moved to Paris. Even then, the main features of the Rick Owens collections were marked – a game with shapes and volumes, deconstructivism, and monochrome gloomy colors.
Back in Los Angeles, Rick met the artist and designer Michelle Lami. She immediately recognized Owens as a kindred spirit and hired him as her brand’s creative partner. Despite the significant age difference, they quickly developed a collaboration and a romantic relationship – Lami became Owens’ constant muse, inspiration, partner, and collaborator.
In addition to developing his own brand, Rick Owens is known for his successful collaborations: for example, the designer has produced unusual Birkenstock flip-flops, collaborated with Dr. Martens, Converse, and Veja, celebrated the centenary of the iconic Champion brand with a sports capsule, and even designed a truck for Moncler (but the famous down jackets were also in the joint collection).
As is often the case with truly creative people, the designer’s activities are not limited to clothing: Rick Owens has an interior line – he makes furniture that is as avant-garde and experimental as his fashion collections. Although the designer gives almost all the credit to his wife, Michelle Lami, calling her a “driven creative force,” Rick Owens’s furniture is very much in tune with his clothes. Noble natural materials, deconstruction techniques, play with proportions, and gothic details such as large horns are used again.