Trust Rick Owens To Make Boots Into a “Shamanistic Ceremony”
For years, Rick Owens has been wrapping boots in an intricate web of laces to create the shape of a pentagram. Both in his longstanding Dr. Martens collaboration and in his in-line range of high-end leather boots, you find laces threaded through a network of metal hooks to create the distinct effect he calls mega-lacing.
Until recently, Owens thought this to be one of his many genius innovations. Turns out, he unintentionally stole the idea.
“I thought I invented it, but I only recently realized my mega-lacing is a memory of the boot worn by Joseph Beuys during his 1965 Action entitled ‘How To Explain Pictures To A Dead Hare,’” said Owens in a statement ahead of the launch of his latest Dr. Martens collaboration.
Sure enough, German artist Joseph Beuys, famous for living in a cage with a wild coyote for a week and plugging a lightbulb into a lemon, is pictured in the ‘60s wearing what look eerily similar to Rick Owens' boots.
How To Explain Pictures To A Dead Hare is a performance art piece where Beuys, with his head covered in honey and gold leaf, walked around the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf whispering to a dead hare he held in his arms. And on his right leather boot, long laces crisscross each other forming a pentagram-like shape.
“It was one of the first art moments I encountered that formed who I am today," said Owens. "Isn’t it great to realize the power of what we retail subliminally? That mix of industrial construction, shamanistic ceremony bordering on pagan hallucination is still what keeps me going…”
Rick Owens fans will be familiar with this artful excess of lacing. And they’ll be familiar with seeing it on Dr. Martens boots.
The American designer and British shoemaker have joined forces many times, bringing this technique to Dr. Martens' signature yellow-stitched black leather shoes.
For their later coming together, releasing October 16 on Dr. Martens' website and arriving with a campaign shot by Owens in his Paris studio, there are towering knee-high boots plus the brand’s classic 1460 boot, each with mega-lacing.
There’s also a pair of steel-toed work boots, although they’re designed so the laces wrap around the top.
Having laces manipulated into a pentagram is likely to elicit some questions. Now, thanks to Owens' recent discovery, we've got some answers.
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