Rick Owens Interviews Eugene Rabkin, Founder of StyleZeitgeist, On the State of Fashion
"Editor’s Note: Eugene Rabkin, the founder of fashion forum StyleZeitgeist, and designer Rick Owens first met when Rabkin was writing a story on the esteemed designer. Recently, the two caught up about StyleZeitgeist’s 10th anniversary and the current state of fashion. We received the resulting discussion from Owens’ team, and are honored to exclusively publish the intimate conversation between them on Highsnobiety.
I first met Eugene, the founder of StyleZeitgeist, when he interviewed me in Paris for an Israeli newspaper. I have previously mentioned that I read the thread on his forum about my work in some magazine interview, and Eugene told me he was the forum’s founder. We stayed in touch ever since. StyleZeitgeist will celebrate its 10th anniversary this month, and I realized that I don’t know all that much about it, so we decided to FaceTime. Below is our conversation.
Eugene Rabkin: Hi Rick! Are you at your factory in Italy?
Rick Owens: Hi Eugene! Yes, I am. Hold on, I am putting the phone on a tripod. We are doing a furniture exhibit in MOCA in Los Angeles, so I did this little documentary on my day in the factory. I was able to shoot myself on my phone cutting the fabric and draping it on the mannequin, which ended up with one of my favorite pieces from the runway show. It came out really nice, so we’re going to show it in this exhibition. But, anyway, wasn’t I supposed to be asking you questions?!
ER: Yes, go ahead!
RO: So, you never told me how you started StyleZeitgeist.
ER: Well, I was already a fashion fan and I was looking for like-minded people, because in my so-called real life I did not know people who liked that type of fashion, which was all too black, and too weird, and too Belgian and Japanese.
I already had a bit of a reputation on other fashion forums, so some people joined me and than it kind of snowballed and became this force in the fashion avant-garde. I was thrilled to find out that you read your own thread! That’s how I plucked up the courage to tell you that it’s my forum when we first met in 2009.
RO: I think forums are great. It’s a weird thing to overhear a conversation about yourself. But, the bottom line is that these people are really interested; they get the image and they get very opinionated and it turns into squabbles. You know that’s human nature, that’s life. Still, it’s very flattering to capture somebody’s interest and you have to be grateful for that.
ER: I agree. I also think the people who participate on the forums, they are the most passionate ones. As a creator you operate in public domain and you have customers from all walks of life, but those guys are the hardcore fans, and they are most precious because they become this tribe that you carry on a creative conversation with.
I feel like a lot of people who are really into your universe, there is sort of a connection that develops between you and them, even if you never met them in your life.
RO: I totally agree, it’s a conversation. But the thing about the most passionate, I don’t want to use the word follower, but the people that are most interested in it; I’m afraid it’s inevitable that they are the ones that will turn on you at some point. It happens in the blink of an eye.
You reach a saturation point where people resent having to share you more with people who they think are not as connected and so they end up with a feeling of resentment.
ER: Yeah, it’s always the conundrum. It’s like sharing your favorite band with people who might not fully understand its music.
RO: But you can’t stay in one place. If you stay in one place you die. So you have to move forward. And the more you move forward the more people become aware of you, and it’s a catch 22. I’m really conscious of not doing something just for the sake of moving forward.
But bottom line is, I want to have fun. And I want to enjoy what I’m doing.
ER: I completely agree. And that’s why I started the StyleZeitgeist magazine."
Rest of Interview on Highsnobiety:
"Editor’s Note: Eugene Rabkin, the founder of fashion forum StyleZeitgeist, and designer Rick Owens first met when Rabkin was writing a story on the esteemed designer. Recently, the two caught up about StyleZeitgeist’s 10th anniversary and the current state of fashion. We received the resulting discussion from Owens’ team, and are honored to exclusively publish the intimate conversation between them on Highsnobiety.
I first met Eugene, the founder of StyleZeitgeist, when he interviewed me in Paris for an Israeli newspaper. I have previously mentioned that I read the thread on his forum about my work in some magazine interview, and Eugene told me he was the forum’s founder. We stayed in touch ever since. StyleZeitgeist will celebrate its 10th anniversary this month, and I realized that I don’t know all that much about it, so we decided to FaceTime. Below is our conversation.
Eugene Rabkin: Hi Rick! Are you at your factory in Italy?
Rick Owens: Hi Eugene! Yes, I am. Hold on, I am putting the phone on a tripod. We are doing a furniture exhibit in MOCA in Los Angeles, so I did this little documentary on my day in the factory. I was able to shoot myself on my phone cutting the fabric and draping it on the mannequin, which ended up with one of my favorite pieces from the runway show. It came out really nice, so we’re going to show it in this exhibition. But, anyway, wasn’t I supposed to be asking you questions?!
ER: Yes, go ahead!
RO: So, you never told me how you started StyleZeitgeist.
ER: Well, I was already a fashion fan and I was looking for like-minded people, because in my so-called real life I did not know people who liked that type of fashion, which was all too black, and too weird, and too Belgian and Japanese.
I already had a bit of a reputation on other fashion forums, so some people joined me and than it kind of snowballed and became this force in the fashion avant-garde. I was thrilled to find out that you read your own thread! That’s how I plucked up the courage to tell you that it’s my forum when we first met in 2009.
RO: I think forums are great. It’s a weird thing to overhear a conversation about yourself. But, the bottom line is that these people are really interested; they get the image and they get very opinionated and it turns into squabbles. You know that’s human nature, that’s life. Still, it’s very flattering to capture somebody’s interest and you have to be grateful for that.
ER: I agree. I also think the people who participate on the forums, they are the most passionate ones. As a creator you operate in public domain and you have customers from all walks of life, but those guys are the hardcore fans, and they are most precious because they become this tribe that you carry on a creative conversation with.
I feel like a lot of people who are really into your universe, there is sort of a connection that develops between you and them, even if you never met them in your life.
RO: I totally agree, it’s a conversation. But the thing about the most passionate, I don’t want to use the word follower, but the people that are most interested in it; I’m afraid it’s inevitable that they are the ones that will turn on you at some point. It happens in the blink of an eye.
You reach a saturation point where people resent having to share you more with people who they think are not as connected and so they end up with a feeling of resentment.
ER: Yeah, it’s always the conundrum. It’s like sharing your favorite band with people who might not fully understand its music.
RO: But you can’t stay in one place. If you stay in one place you die. So you have to move forward. And the more you move forward the more people become aware of you, and it’s a catch 22. I’m really conscious of not doing something just for the sake of moving forward.
But bottom line is, I want to have fun. And I want to enjoy what I’m doing.
ER: I completely agree. And that’s why I started the StyleZeitgeist magazine."
Rest of Interview on Highsnobiety:
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