Who is Michèle Lamy and Why is Everyone Obsessed with her?
Michèle Lamy is a French artist, designer and one of the most free-spirited iconic people of the fashion world. She has been a fashion designer, stripper, restaurant owner and best known for currently being the wife, muse and furniture “general contractor” as she puts it, of her husband Rick Owens. Her mysterious otherworldly aura and gravelly gritty voice draws you in, likely caused by the endless number of cigarettes that flow through her hands as she ebbs and flows throughout the numerous careers of her life.
“I follow a flow of attraction and try to make a living out of it.” – Michèle Lamy
In both the world of arts and fashion she remains an emblematic figure as she is known to party all night long even in her senior years, as opposed to her husband Rick Owens who retires early. She is close friends with Kim Kardashian and during Paris Fashion Week she is known to party with A$AP Rocky whom she even collaborated with on his album.
Michèle Lamy’s Aesthetics
At first glance, her unique aesthetics might make you stop and stare, she has always been exploring and pushing the boundary between beautiful and the uglies. She has been mistaken for a primitive divinity, a pagan priestess, a gypsy, a witch, a vampire, but in reality she is a successful entrepreneur who is confident and self-assured in the way she presents herself. Every part of her appearance has been carefully thought through, using herself as a piece of canvas. “I would never have a tattoo like somewhere I cannot look at.”
She has Berber-inspired tattooed fingers and uses henna to dye her nails black. “Not the traditional Indian henna,” but one similar to a Japanese vegetable dye used to cover gray hair. By dipping her fingers in the henna to dye her nails, her fingers also gain a black dye of sorts that lasts for a while.
The vertical line painted on her forehead is what keeps her “grounded” and she applies it with an eye pencil ensuring “it’s not too straight.” Giving us just a glimpse in the whirlwind energy of her life, perfection doesn’t seem to be what she is striving for, instead she enjoys experiencing the complexity of working with artisans and rare materials. .
She has gold and diamonds in her teeth to replace fillings in her molars at a new age dentist who wanted to “bring the light to you or whatever,” as she says. Having spent a large sum of money on her teeth, she was a little upset that no one could see it. Having “spent all this money and these good vibes in these teeth that we don’t see,” she decided to get gold in her front teeth since she liked gold and it defies any possible nicotine stains.
Michèle Lamy has had a Multi-Hyphenated Career
Parisian entrepreneur Michèle Lamy has been a lawyer, a stripper, a fashion designer, a restauranteur, and a jewelry designer, all in one lifetime. Such a vast and expansive career, with no signs of stopping even as she enters her 80s.
Here’s a quote from Michèle Lamy that perfectly describes her life over the years.
“In my twenties, I wanted to escape my rich provincial upbringing, so I abandoned studies as a defense attorney to striptease. I was involved in the May, 1968 protests in Paris, and in the early seventies I wanted to be Bob Dylan. My thirties were spent living the Californian Dream surrounded by artists, and giving birth to my daughter Scarlett Rouge. My forties were an entrepreneurial era in Los Angeles where I met my honey, Rick Owens, and I will spend my fifties enjoying life with him.” – Oyster Magazine Q&A with Michèle Lamy.
In 1944, she was born to an Algerian family in Jura, a mountainous region of eastern France. Her grandfather made accessories for Paul Poiret which introduced her to design early on. Michèle noticed from a young age that she looked different than the people around her. Growing up in a rural village, people treated them differently. “When I was a little girl, with my sister and my dad at the Riviera, people would talk to us in English because of our dark skin and our very long hair. Our father looked almost like a Gandhi type, with no hair.” People thought they were Indian and in response, Michèle began altering her appearance with henna from a young age.
She earned a law degree in Paris and during her time at university, she was a student of the postmodern philosopher Gilles Deleuze for two years. After, she spent roughly 5 years practicing criminal law as a defense attorney. However she felt inclined to leave because of her philosophical disagreements with the French legal system, somehow becoming a cabaret dancer. Such a drastic change in career, even Michèle herself reflects, “I am still unable to analyze why I went from law school to be doing strip tease.”
After countless trips around France as a cabaret dancer, she felt the urge for change. In 1979, She moved to the USA, from New York to Los Angeles, managing two landmark venues for city nightlife, Cafe des Artistes and Les Deux Cafe. She was emblematic of Los Angeles nightlife in the 90s.
Les Deux Cafe
Finding images and recordings of the existence of Les Deux Cafe feels much like chasing after the wind. It seems to exist mostly in the memories of those able to partake in its perplexing and rich history. Between 1996 and 2003, this cabaret-restaurant took the stage as the star of Los Angeles nightlife.
It was hidden in a nondescript parking lot, behind unmarked steel doors, but not everyone was allowed in. Many celebrities could be seen enjoying the scene such as Nicole Kidman, David Lynch and Alpacino. Service was terrible, apparently this was intentional, a previous employee described it as “the most impossibly seedy and glamorous and debauched place I’d ever been.” He had been something of a bouncer, who according to Michèle was always letting in the wrong person and keeping out the right ones. However, all good things come to an end.
In 2002 Rick won the prestigious Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent at the CFDA Awards, and was invited to move to Paris to relaunch the furrier house Revillion. By 2003, they left for Paris and it seemed that the wild energy of Les Deux Cafe was dissipated with the loss of its owners. The employees seemed to love working there because even when business began to slow and paychecks were bouncing, they kept showing up until one day the doors never opened again.
Launching Lamy and Meeting Rick Owens
She founded her own brand, Lamy, and it was through her quest for finding a pattern maker that Rick Owens was introduced into her life. They are a strange couple that seem perfect for each other, they both drive each other forward in their eccentric love for fashion and style. Rick Owens has mentioned time and time again that he gets such inspiration by spending time with her. Whilst she is most commonly referred to as his muse, Rick Owens has said she’s more of a mate than a muse, because she does not fit into a regular stereotype of a muse, sparking imagination and intellectual stimulation when you interact with her.
Lamyland
Even at the age of 74, in 2018, she set up a boxing gym in London, having practiced boxing for over 30 years long before it became a hip exercise for all the young ladies of the world.
Whilst most of us stick to two or three careers throughout our life, Michèle seems to have experienced more than one lifetime with her free spirit. She navigates the world freely with her and generates genuine curiosity and happiness from the people around her.
“Belief is a way to express a memory of your genes.” – Michèle Lamy
