MONCLER+RICK OWENS
The Mountain Refuge
OWENS’ Trademark avant-garde aesthetic always blurs the lines between fashion, architecture and sustainability.
RICK OWENS has built an empire on pugnacious creations like leather jackets with spiked shoulders and tottering platform boots.
The cult designer keeps saying: “I appreciate the freaks. I want to be somebody that says you can invent yourself, that you can release the freak within.”
Rick Owens work is all about ‘extreme style’. Rick dares to do it !
What Moncler has got to do with it?
Well, as a Californian born, Rick stepped into this new Moncler project after creating personal environments with matching wardrobes, such as a customized bus for touring land art installations in the California desert and an isolation tank sleeping chamber that ended up in his house.
The fall-Winter 24-25 is the right moment to present a demountable mountain refuge inspired by the Charlotte Perriand designed lodging owned by Hun’s family in the French Alps.
Thanks to Hugh Broughton Architects, iconically experienced for their expertise in extreme condition structures,(remember Antarctica), this project is a model for integrated advanced technologies for off-grid functionality, durability, efficiency, and ease of transport.
Just admire the stainless steel monocoque shell, the thermally insulated panels, the structure’s footing, featuring adjustable, stainless-steel legs, with ball and socket joints, adapted for precise levelling on uneven terrain. How to access the refuge ? Via an entry airlock, protecting against harsh weather conditions.
The refuge’s energy system is powered by integrated photovoltaic roof panels that ensure complete energy autonomy along with a wind turbine. The refuge also incorporates sustainable water and waste systems…heating is provided by a log-burning stove and supplementary electric heaters.
What about the refuge’s interior? It is lined with Moncler duvet nylon and felted wool blankets, a nod to Joseph Beuys, Rick Owen’s artistic hero for 50 years.
This collaboration also extends to a clothing collection based on soft organic cotton long johns layered under duvet body suits that zip into sleeping cocoons for hibernating in a felt and duvet lined stell cave.
By: Mário de Castro
@moncler
@insta_rickowens
