Michèle Lamy: The Anti-Muse as Living Art

Michèle Lamy, born in 1944 in the Jura region of France to an Algerian family, is the wife, muse, and business partner of fashion designer Rick Owens. She studied law and worked as a lawyer in the 1960s–70s while studying post-structuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze and participating in the May 1968 protests in France. Leaving law, she became a cabaret dancer, touring France before moving to the US in 1979. After a brief stay in New York, she settled in Los Angeles, where she founded her own brand, ran iconic nightclubs Café des Artistes and Les Deux Café, and married experimental filmmaker Richard Newton. In 1990, she founded the clothing line Lamy and hired Rick Owens, who became her partner and husband. Within Owenscorp, she oversees special projects, working alongside artisans on furniture, home goods, and jewelry. She regularly wears Owens's designs and her own jewelry lines HUNROD and Loree Rodkin, and owns a vast archive of COMME des GARÇONS garments. Lamy has participated in art projects at Frieze, the Barbican Centre in London, and Art Basel Hong Kong, and performed with UNKLE and ASAP Rocky on a boat at the Venice Biennale. Her signature look includes gold teeth, pirate piercings, rings worn constantly, and finger tattoos inspired by North African Berbers. She continues to be a reference for younger generations and an iconoclast in fashion.