Where is Rick Owens From​?

Where Was Rick Owens Born and Raised?

Rick Owens grew up in Porterville, California, a farm town in the Central Valley where he was born in 1961. Nobody there was talking about fashion. After high school he moved down to Los Angeles, took art classes at Otis, and later went to Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to learn pattern making. That’s the route he took before launching his own label. You can see where it ended up in the Rick Owens collection.

Growing Up in Porterville, California

I’ll be honest: it’s hard to picture a less likely origin. Owens has described himself as an outsider there, and you only have to look at his clothes to believe it. Nothing in a Rick Owens collection feels like it came from a place where everyone knows everyone. It feels like it came from someone who looked at all that sunshine and wanted something darker.

What he held onto was costume. Larry LeGaspi made stage outfits for KISS and Labelle, huge, shiny, almost ridiculous things. Owens has pointed to that glam-rock world as an early window into something bolder. You didn’t have to live in New York to get that message. Sometimes it just shows up in a magazine and sticks.

Rick Owens in Los Angeles: Otis and Pattern-Making

He left for Los Angeles, which makes sense. A short stretch at Otis College of Art and Design came first, then Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, where he studied pattern-making. Pattern-making isn’t glamorous. It’s measuring, cutting, fixing, cutting again. But it’s the reason his clothes drape the way they do. People talk about the shows and the mood and forget that underneath it all is someone who really knows how fabric behaves.

One correction while we’re here. You’ll read that Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto taught him. They didn’t. They inspired him, which is different, and you can feel it in how his clothes hang away from the body. Early on, in the 1990s, he started his own label, and even then the long shapes and muted colors were there. He didn’t find his look later. He had it, and then he spent years refining it.

Why Rick Owens Moved to Paris

Sometime in the early 2000s he moved to Paris, and that was the real shift. Better stage, bigger audience, and over time a finish on the clothes that the early work didn’t quite have. Michèle Lamy, his partner, is a huge part of it too. A lot of what people call the Rick Owens atmosphere is her as much as him, from the feel of the shows to the way the whole house presents itself.

So “where is he from?” has a slightly awkward answer. Porterville, then Los Angeles, then Paris. Call him a California designer and nobody will argue, but you’ll have skipped most of what makes him interesting.

The “Porterville” Collection: A Tribute to His Hometown

Here’s what I like most. For Fall/Winter 2024, he named a collection “Porterville.” Decades in Europe, one of the biggest names in avant-garde fashion, and he turned around and pointed everything at the small town where he never quite fit in. The place that made him feel like an outsider ended up as the title of a runway show. That’s a pretty good ending.

If you want to see the name on actual clothing, there’s the Porterville hoodie and the Porterville shirt. The Journal has more writing on him if this made you curious.

Rick Owens Quick Facts

FAQ

Where was Rick Owens born?
In Porterville, a small agricultural city in California’s San Joaquin Valley, on November 18, 1961.

Where did Rick Owens grow up?
He grew up in Porterville before moving to Los Angeles to study and start his career.

Did Rick Owens grow up in Paris?
No. He grew up in Porterville and studied in Los Angeles. He moved his base to Paris in the early 2000s.

Where did Rick Owens study?
He briefly attended Otis College of Art and Design, then studied pattern-making at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

Does he still reference his hometown?
Yes. His Fall/Winter 2024 collection was named “Porterville.”