Fashion design eccentric Rick Owens has followed his offbeat muse to fame & fortune, and now, with a National Design Award, to the fashion mainstream.
"My look is about an appreciation of teenage angst without actually having the angst," offbeat fashion designer Rick Owens recently told WWD about his signature “glamour-meets-Goth” design aesthetic. As the newest winner of the Target-sponsored National Design Award, Owens was chosen over Phillip Lim & Narciso Rodriguez for this year’s prize; past winners of the eight-year old award include Tom Ford (the first recipient in the category of fashion), fashion indie Maria Cornejo, Yeohlee Teng, and the team of Isabel and Ruben Toledo (respectively a well-respected “designer’s designer” & a renowned illustrator, known for his quirky style & his work on the Daily Candy website).
The purpose of the NDA is to reward innovative design, and Owens is in esteemed company:
- Communications Design: Chip Kidd – book jacket design
- Architecture Design: Office dA of Boston
- Interior Design: Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis
- Landscape Design: Peter Walker
- Product Design: Apple Inc.'s Jonathan Ive
- Corporate Achievement: Adobe Systems Inc.
- Design mind: Venturi, Scott and Brown Assoc.
The architect Antoine Predock will be presented with a lifetime achievement award, and author Francis D.K. Ching will receive a special jury commendation.
Interestingly, this year’s NDA jury – which included Yeohlee Teng & Tim Gunn, (formerly of Project Runway & now creative director at Liz Claiborne) – recently even held a roundtable to discuss the process they went through to select the winners. The NDA ceremony will occur during National Design Week (October 14-20) at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s annual gala on October 18.
- via WWD
