The New Moncler x Rick Owens Collab Is Out Of This World

When it comes to fashion, there’s nothing we love more than a good collab. Telfar x The Gap, Jonah Hill x adidas, Macauley Culkin x Christmas, Marc Jacobs x Girl Interrupted, and Miley Cyrus and three IRL couples for Valentine’s Day… but no one does a partnership quite like Moncler. Ever since launching their Genius project two years ago, the brand has teamed up with all our favourites — Noir Kei Ninomiya, Simone Rocha, Richard Quinn, 1017 ALYX 9SM, Rimowa, JW Anderson… the list goes on and on. Now, the label has tapped Rick Owens and the result is fresh AF. But because its Rick Owens, the designer decided to shake things up.

Instead of delivering some dope Moncler x Rick Owens coats or shoes, Owens decided to customise a tour bus. Yup. Inspired by German artist Joseph Beuys travelling to the US in the ’70s, Owens created a special Moncler x Rick Owens vehicle and hopped in it, with Michele Lamy, of course.

The duo, clad in custom Moncler, took a trip from California to Nevada, and luckily, documented a few stops on the way.

“Moncler approached me about a collab and I took advantage of the moment to ask them to do something different — to customise a tour bus for hun and I to make a road trip from LAX to Michael Heizer’s ranch in Nevada,” he wrote in a press release. “Heizer had invited us to see his monumental land art piece, 48 years in the making… and I hadn’t been to the West Coast since I moved to Europe 18 years ago.”

On Beuys’ famous journey, he ended up “landing at JFK, being wrapped in felt and taken by ambulance to his NY gallery to live with a wild coyote for three days in his installation I Like America and America Likes Me,” Owens remembered, before returning to Germany the exact same way.

While Owens and Lamy didn’t do things quite as crazy as Beuys, “our tour would take us through Las Vegas and Area 51 with a detour to Heizer’s Double Negative,” said Owens. In addition to Beuys, maybe he was also inspired by the 2 million people who RSVP’s to storm Area 51 last year? You just never know.

Luckily, Owens and Lamy didn’t get abducted by aliens (or obsessed fans of extraterrestrial porn) and survived their journey, as did their custom whip. After making it to Heizer’s ranch in Nevada, the bus hit the road (and the air) all the way back to Milan, where it is now on view and available to order. So are the clothes Owens and his hun wore on the road.