Glade

Glade, presented at Carpenters Workshop Gallery London from 16 September to 25 October 2019, represents the culmination of Rick Owens’ multidisciplinary approach to design, blending sculpture, architecture, and functionality. Conceived and produced in collaboration with Michèle Lamy – Owens’ wife, muse, business partner, and creative force – the installation features a modular system of ten Glade units and two corner elements, all constructed in batipan plywood and covered with surplus French wool army blankets.

These signature materials reference Owens’ early furniture experiments and the original bed designed for his own home, while also evoking a tactile, ritualistic quality. Each module functions independently, incorporating integrated lighting, internet conduits, and phone chargers, demonstrating Owens’ commitment to blending practical living with sculptural form. The exhibition foregrounds Owens’ interest in furniture as social architecture, turning sofas into spaces of gathering, contemplation, and interaction rather than mere objects of display.

Born in 1961 in Porterville, California, Owens began his career in fashion in 1994, gaining recognition for his dark, avant-garde aesthetic and architectural approach to clothing. Moving to Paris in 2003 with Lamy, he expanded his practice into furniture, interiors, and collaborative projects, establishing Owenscorp and blending fashion, art, and design. Glade reflects this integrated vision, where his signature sculptural sensibility, minimalism, and fascination with ritualistic and monumental forms translate seamlessly from runway to environment.

Owens describes a glade as a forest clearing – “a canopy that shelters a scattering of broken and jagged rocks” – a metaphor that permeates the design of the installation. The forms draw on Brutalist architecture, 1960s minimalism, and Arte Povera, yet are tempered with organic, natural references, including the soft folds of blankets and the subtle curves of plywood. This duality reflects Owens’ lifelong engagement with architecture, from the logic of Le Corbusier to the monumental presence of sacred spaces, while embracing the material experimentation central to his furniture and fashion work.

Complementary objects, including an “explosion” of aluminum prong stools, new Curial chairs, and eight Aztec crowns plated in silver and black chrome in collaboration with Steve Wintercrop, extend this interplay between past, present, and imagined futures. These pieces resonate with Owens’ S/S 2020 Paris Fashion Week show, blurring the boundary between wearable fashion, spatial installation, and sculptural narrative.

Produced by Michèle Lamy in Paris, Glade exemplifies Owens’ long-standing partnership with Lamy, whose intuitive, artisanal approach grounds Owens’ conceptual visions in tangible, meticulously crafted forms. Owens’ early furniture work, beginning in Los Angeles in 2007, merged minimalism with organic materials such as French wool, bone, and alabaster, establishing a vocabulary that traverses his fashion and interior work. Glade continues this trajectory, reflecting Owens’ interest in ritual, communal space, and the physicality of materials, while integrating contemporary technology to meet present-day living standards.

Represented internationally by Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the installation situates Owens at the intersection of design, art, and fashion, demonstrating how a designer known for dark, avant-garde clothing can translate the same principles of form, proportion, and atmosphere into environments that are immersive, functional, and deeply personal. Owens’ work consistently draws on a wide knowledge of 20th-century art, architecture, and material culture, blending minimalism, punk, and brutalist references with a uniquely sculptural sensibility. Through this work, Owens and Lamy extend a philosophy that considers furniture not merely as object, but as stage, ritual, and extension of human experience.