Worn Forms 001: Rick Owens Ramones and the Shape of Wear

Fashion · Worn Forms 001

From a punk uniform to a pair of high-tops on an easel.

The first thing I notice about this pair is the line around the toe. The rubber is the colour of old paper in places and grey at the scuffed edges. Above that uneven strip, the black canvas still cuts a sharp outline against the paint-marked easel.

This pair opens Worn Forms, a PREMIEREMINISTAR Fashion series about pieces from my wardrobe and the marks they gather in use.

A punk uniform in a designer shoe

On the cover of the Ramones’ 1976 debut, Roberta Bayley photographed the band against a brick wall. Leather jackets and torn jeans gave four people the coherence of a single image. The band did something similar with sound, stripping rock down to fast guitars and short, catchy songs. Owens saw the Chuck Taylor through that image of the band. It was a shoe he associated with the look and attitude of punk. [1, 2, 3]

By Spring/Summer 2014, that reference had become the DRKSHDW Ramones. You can see the Chuck Taylor in the toe cap and laces. Owens gave that familiar shape a heavier bumper and a tongue that extends above the collar. The high-top has the weight of a boot in profile and the familiar surface of a canvas sneaker. Under wide trousers, the bumper is the part that shows. With a narrow leg, the tall tongue breaks the line at the ankle. [3, 4]

From the Ramones to Magnolia

In his 2017 “Magnolia” video, Playboi Carti wore a perforated version from Owens’s Walrus collection with waxed denim in one scene and cargo trousers in another. The same shape had found a place in rap’s visual language. In 2021, Owens revisited the Chuck Taylor with Converse, giving the TURBODRK Chuck 70 a square toe. [5, 4]

An eye for sculpture

Owens once compared the focus of the Ramones’ songs to a Donald Judd installation. In Judd’s stacks, evenly spaced boxes make the empty intervals as noticeable as the metal. On this pair, the raised tongue and thick, horizontal sole have a similar clarity. Each part stands out because of what sits beside it. [3, 6]

In 2016, MOCA Los Angeles exhibited Owens’s furniture and sculptures alongside paintings by Steven Parrino, drawing attention to how both makers distort familiar forms. The easel changes how I see the shoes, too. At eye level, the narrow shelf and the gap between the two shoes become part of the composition. [7]

The colour of this pair

The rubber still holds pale stretches along the sides, with darker scuffs where the toe curves under. The canvas creases around the ankle and there are loose threads by one zip. I like that the wear is uneven. A grey scrape interrupts a long cream edge and becomes the detail I remember. Beside the old paint on the easel, the shoes look like objects that have been kept and used.

— Jospin Wally

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