Rick Owens paks a punch

Many will find it amusing to hear that designer Rick Owens has partnered with Eastpak, the bag brand best known for backpacks sported by suburban kids in grade school who wouldn’t know Rick Owens from, say, a Fall Out Boy.

The Paris-based, California native recently drew criticism for his catty remarks about American tourists and how their fannypacks were spoiling his chic Parisian landscape. Which makes his partnership with Eastpak all the more peculiar.

The label has, after all, more than a few fannypacks under their, well, belts.

But Owens, who showed his fall 2009 menswear to critical acclaim, seems to have turned over a new, kinder leaf. His punk-ish, denim-laden pieces were his way of making amends with the same tourists blighting French thoroughfares. “So this collection is my apology for being such a pompous asshole,” he said after the conclusion of his menswear show.

Perhaps his Eastpak collaboration is part and parcel of embracing democratic style — warts, fannypack and all? If that’s the case, a huge thanks to the folks kind enough to inspire Owens, dubbed the “minimalist goth” by his admirers, to create his own collection for the label.

Simon says

This isn’t the first — or even second — affiliation Eastpak has made with a high-end designer. Raf Simons, the man behind Jil Sander’s well-received architectural efforts, launched a two-part collection for Eastpak only last year. Made up of metallic trim, leather, mesh and canvas, the satchels, which came in messenger bags, hobos and duffels, were a sold-out success. During the opening of this school year, Eastpak began stocking Eley Kishimoto backpacks for their spring-summer 2009 series. The brightly-printed carryalls boasted the same color-happy, vibrant aesthetic the Brit label is known for.

Dark horse

Available next week at Bratpack in Greenbelt 5, the Owens collection, christened Drk Shdw Eastpak, has a worn-in feel, thanks to a dry stone wash that brings to mind knapsacks worn from decades of travel and heavy-duty use. These are no flimsy satchels meant to extend the designer’s reach by a quick stamp of the brand name on a generic canvas rucksack.

Available in three shades from his Drk Shdw label (named after Owens’ denim line), the chalky hues of Drk Shdw (black), dust (an amalgam of dusty pink and gray) and pearl (greige) evoke Owens’ signature palette. “The color that I call Drk Shdw comes from the layers of faded army surplus clothes and backpacks dyed black,” says Owens. Made using a welding technique that eschews sewing altogether, giving it a streamlined almost futuristic look, the 11-piece range has a utilitarian, almost-threadbare appearance that puts it in another category altogether than most designer collaborations.

‘’One of the reasons I always lived around Hollywood Boulevard when I lived in LA was the energy and allure of the packs of wild kids that lived on those streets then,” says Owens. “They were such a world away from the safe conservative town I’d come from. They were reckless, Dionysian, cunning, exotic. The memory of those kids and how I felt about them is what I was thinking about when I did these bags with Eastpak.’’

Made up of a duffel, purse, bucket bag, backpack and wrist bag, among others, the collection is pure Owens: somber, minimalist and just a little beat. And, suffice to say, there isn’t a fanny pack among them.

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E-mail me at jackieoflash@yahoo.com.