Michele Lamy has the enchanting quality of being both remarkably intimidating and welcoming at the same time. She’s petite in stature, often dressed in all-black, and always seen with a signature black kohl line drawn down the middle of her forehead. “It has to be there or I don’t recognize myself,” she says. When Lamy walks, her footsteps are amplified by the clanging of her metal jewellery. Her smile beams a warmth you wouldn’t expect from a row of gold insets icier than any rapper’s grills. “I love accessories, I think they are a part of me,” she gushes. “lt’s about things that make a story.”
Though no label does her justice (she’s been everything from a defense attorney to a philosophy student of Gilles Deleuze), Michele Lamy is widely known today as designer Rick Owen’s wife, creative accomplice, and muse — a term that’s taken her some time to get used to. “You know, when I first heard ‘muse,’ I was so pissed off. My initial issue with the word is it is so traditionally feminine. They won’t call a man a muse,” Lamy explained. ”If there was another word it would be better. But now I think there is no other word. Now I think it’s a nice word that explains my relationship with Rick. We have been living together for 29 years, so we are like orbiting planets.”
It was a fitting metaphor. Lamy was in Hong Kong for Rick Owens’s second collaboration with Birkenstock, a brand partnership that she describes as “a story of seduction,” and one that was largely encouraged by her creative direction. “When Rick was approached by Birkenstock, the brand at that time didn’t immediately feel ‘cool’ to me but I thought the idea was super cool. It made sense to me. There was also an avalanche of sneakers around, so it made sense for him to do a footwear collaboration.” The inaugural collection featuring the Long Fur Arizona sandals instantly sold out, pushing the orthopedic footwear label into the cool kids’ limelight. The latest season’s collection brought us a new, distinctively RO-style boot silhouette called the Rotterhiker that really fused the two brands together. “The first collection was a wink and the second collaboration became a real story,” Lamy quips.
Michele Lamy in Rick Owens x Birkenstock Rotterdam Black & Silver Sandals
Photo: Tse-Wei Lim
As is usually the case, Lamy found beauty in areas often overlooked during her time in Hong Kong. “When I come to Hong Kong I try to see what’s the most Chinese or the most traditional. We try to go to the little street market but also the harbour and the boats. Last time I was on a boat, I wanted to see all the big containers and that’s the part that attracted me the most so far.” She was also adamant about taking the new high-speed train to Shanghai for the second leg of her Asia trip. “It’s a new experience and I was serious about it. On the train, everyone’s minds are more open. There’s freedom of thinking and you have the time to stretch.”
During our short talk, Michele gave a grande tour of her life experiences and philosophies. Through her warm, thick French accent, she recalls her first memories of her personal style. “I was in boarding school wearing a uniform, but when we went skiing I remember always doing something weird like attaching skins to what I was wearing. ‘Where did she get that from?’ I remember people saying… Nothing much has changed!” Indeed, most of Lamy’s rituals have been long-standing, like her relationship with boxing. “I’ve been doing it for 35 years. Boxing is a great metaphor for life because it is a sport that is known to be so male, and then it became so female,” Lamy said. “It’s a good metaphor for what to be in life and standing on your feet …” she paused with a brief smirk. “While wearing your Birkenstocks, s’il vous plaît.”
Michele Lamy’s favourite things…
Editor
Joanna FuCredit
Photography by Tse-Wei Lim
