The Rick Owens x Champions SS20 collection

After seeing her on the Paris catwalks last June, the Rick Owens x Champions SS20 collection was officially unveiled. For the occasion, Owens did not simply rewrite champion's sportswear codes but changed the brand's logo, embedding it inside an inverted pentacle reminiscent of the DRKSHDW line and expressing well the contamination between apparel classic sports car and goth aesthetics operated by Owens with this collection. Here's how Owens commented on the new logo designed for the iconic sportswear brand:

“When I started my label in the Nineties, I hand-drew my logo as a cross between the Champion logo and a Jean Patou perfume label. They both had a similar vintage calligraphic flair. […] I always liked geometric diagrams because there is a satisfying logic when you see a linear, geometric form. And a star has a lot of connotations, a pentagram, a guiding star, a north star, it can be about magic. So there’s a mystery to a star. It’s a theme I go back to over and over again”.

For this collaborative collection, Owens rethought Champion's repertoire from underwear and then transformed all the classic items such as the Reverse Weave sweatshirt, mesh shorts, outerwear and sports jerseys into something like togas long robes. The actual clothing is then added a series of accessories such as headbands and mesh and nylon hats. The end result is pure Rick Owens: hypermodern, gothic, androgynous. The collection is also all Made in Italy because, in the preliminary stages of the collaboration, Owens discovered that his Italian factory was only 15km from Champion's – making this collaboration more sustainable in terms of manufacturing.

Part of the Rick Owens x Champion collection is already available online on Rick Owens' official website and on SSENSE, while the full release in stores of both Champion and Rick Owens will take place from March 12th. Stay tuned to nss magazine for updates on Rick Owens' upcoming collaborations and releases.