Michèle Lamy Young: Rare Archival Photos Tracing Her Wild Style Evolution
By 1990, Lamy was operating her own ready-to-wear clothing line called Lamy in downtown Los Angeles. Seeking a skilled patternmaker to execute her fluid, draped concepts, she placed a classified listing. A quiet, technical cutter named Rick Owens answered the advertisement. At the time, Owens was earning a modest living knocking off designer patterns in garment district sweatshops.
Their initial working dynamic quickly evolved into an all-encompassing romantic and commercial union. Where Owens brought monastic discipline, technical precision, and a severe gothic restraint, Lamy brought raw nomadic intuition, historical references, and relentless kinetic energy. Photos from the early 1990s show the two in their shared live-work loft on Hollywood Boulevard, Owens with his razor-cut dark mane and Lamy with her increasingly layered, ritualistic styling.
Lamy was not merely an aesthetic inspiration; she operated as the foundational catalyst for the Rick Owens label. She urged Owens to launch his eponymous line in 1994, funding early fabric runs and wearing his elongated leather jackets through the celebrity-packed dining room of Les Deux Cafés. Her personal endorsement was instrumental in landing Owens's work in Maxfield, Los Angeles's premier luxury boutique, which ultimately sparked his international breakthrough. When they relocated together to Paris in 2003, occupying a former French Socialist Party headquarters on Place du Palais Bourbon, that partnership anchored the Owenscorp empire.
