American fashion designer RICK OWENS and shoe brand CONVERSE team up for a capsule collection, presented with Disrupt Formality campaign created entirely by Montreal-based artists Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton known as Fecal Matter. The Converse x Rick Owens DRKSHDW collection explores form and function and reinterprets classic Converse sneakers through Owens‘ rebellious, glam-rock / grunge lenses. With an idea to distort ubiquitous, Owens reshaped classic Chuck 70 – extending the tongue and squaring-off the toe.
“When I think of Converse, I think of the black and white Chuck Taylors and the punk rock generation. These have always been iconic pillars of my aesthetic. Wearing Chuck Taylors, you align yourself with a generation that was experimental. There is a confident dynamic to the subculture.
I’ve been using this pentagram for a long time because obviously, it has adolescent occult associations. But I like geometric diagrams like that because, in a very primal way, they are a culture’s grasp for control. And a way to organize thoughts and systems. And a pentagram, in this day and age with all of its associations… I like the fact that it refers to an alternative system. And that suggests openness and empathy. It suggests the pursuit of pleasure, this pursuit of sensation. But one of the main things that I think it suggests is empathy and a consideration of systems of living that might not be standard. So that leads us to be more accepting and tolerant of other systems, which I think is a good thing.” – Rick Owens
The Converse x DRKSHDW TurboDrk Chuck 70 will be available from July 27th.
