Fabulous fashion designer Rick Owens recently shared his 10 Rules of Style with Details Magazine, offering his unique takes on how to accessorize, tailor, and more.

Rick Owens

If you haven’t heard of Rick Owens, he started his label in 1994 and is now one of the most respected designers in the industry. His impeccably sophisticated yet avant garde leather jackets and pants are favorites of trendsetters like Rihanna, and his pieces tread the line between classic and conversation piece.

Rihanna leather Jacket oversized Collar Rick Owens

Take a look at his style rules:
1. I’m not good at subtlety. If you’re not going to be discreet and quiet, then just go all the way and have the balls to shave off your eyebrows, bleach your hair, and put on some big bracelets.

2. Working out is modern couture. No outfit is going to make you look or feel as good as having a fit body. Buy less clothing and go to the gym instead.

3. I’ve lived in Paris for six years, and I’m sorry to say that the Ugly American syndrome still exists. Sometimes you just want to say ‘Stop destroying the landscape with your outfit.’ Still, from a design standpoint, I’m tempted to redo the fanny pack. I look at it as a challenge: it’s something to react against.

4. When a suit gets middle-of-the-road it kind of loses me—it has to be sharp and classic and almost forties.

5. Hair and shoes say it all. Everything in between is forgivable as long as you keep it simple. Trying to talk with your clothes is passive-aggressive.

6. There’s something a little too chatterboxy about color. Right now I want black, for its sharpness and punctuation.

7. Jean-Michel Frank, the thirties interior and furniture designer, supposedly had 40 identical double-breasted gray flannel suits. He knew himself and is a wonderful example of restraint and extravagance.

8. I hate rings and bracelets on men. I’m not a fan of man bags, or girl bags either or even sunglasses. I don’t like fussy accessories. Isn’t it more chic to be free? Every jacket I make has interior pockets big enough to store a book and a sandwich and a passport.

9. With layering, sometimes the more the better. When you layer a lot of black you’re like a walking Louise Nevelson sculpture, and that’s pretty attractive. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is also one of the most attractive things you can do.

10. It’s funny: whenever someone talks about rules, I just want to break them. I recoil from the whole idea of rules.

I’ve gotta agree with his rules about shoes and hair–they can make an outfit.
What do you think of his fashion philosophies?
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3 thoughts on “Rick Owens’ 10 Rules of Style”

  1. I love Rick Owens, I’ve always have. His clothes expresses the true essence of simplicity. Don’t over do it, just keep it simple. Every once in while let body interpret the philosophy of the clothes.

  2. They are just his rules of the moment. He too is bound to end up breaking them because he is such a protean and unfolding wonder of design intelligence.
    The big problem for me with Rick’s stuff is that it resonates so deeply with how I want to dress that it is hard to resist the sense of entitlement I have that I should be the one wearing his designs even if it ruins me!

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