THE PIN–UP QUOTE: RICK OWENS

I love Eileen Gray. But then I’m inspired by a lot of different designers, like Le Corbusier, Joe Colombo, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann. I really liked the old Art Deco pieces that I saw as a kid. They appeared so stoic and monumental. But when I saw them in real life, they were actually so small, like teeny doll furniture. My furniture takes that base, but supersizes everything. I kind of like that monumentalist, rationalist Italian fascist look, but a skate park reduction of that aesthetic. Like my clothes, everything is reduced, cartoon-ish, almost dumbed-down. When you move from sophistication to crudeness you generate a kind of internal energy along the way.

Taken from an interview by Stephen Todd in PIN–UP 1, Fall Winter 2006/07.

The full interview is also available in PIN–UP INTERVIEWS, available through powerHouse Books.

Potrait by Assaf Shoshan.