Rick Owen's new store in NY is an inspiration

Rick Owens opened his new New York store on Monday night with a small party for the faithful circle that have always cultivated his pieces. Located at 250 Hudson Square, let's just say Owens is forging a new frontier in many rights. I wanted to invoke Owens as a bookend to that "Whither Young Designers" I posted earlier. I'm not afraid of negativity but I also think it is very important to move past it. Rick Owens is now quite well established and has been logging a boom in media coverage from the style.com video previews of his new space, to that beautifully crafted New Yorker profile earlier this year. Yet after all that ...after the Vogue portraits and the Palais Royal boutique, Owens' business has been built in a very careful, very contained way that is driven by integrity and not forced growth. Maybe that can stand as a point of reference for many of the young designers struggling to keep their place on the map right now.
The amazing fact is that this NY space is only his second store worldwide. I'm sure Owens has been deluged in offers to open worldwide and to take his business mass really fast...to no avail. He might be the last person to argue that he is the world's greatest businessman, but Rick Owens just goes to prove that faith and patience in your vision and the courage to pursue a personal aesthetic regardless of what other people might think is a truly shrewd path to success. I love that the Rick Owens ideal has never been diluted for a split second.