Hand Portrait by Rick OwensVia Jak and JilFirst pieces of jewellery ever made by Rick OwensImages shot by Monika Bielskyte
Michele Lamy or Mrs. Rick Owens is the creative consultant for the rad designs her husband sends down the runway, the muse feeding into his genius. (Did you spot the infamous Rick Owens jacket in one of the pics?) What you don't know is she’s also been a teenage striptease dancer, defence attorney, philosophy student, singer, composer, restaurateur and a successful designer. In fact, she met Owens (17 years her junior) through his then-boyfriend and hired him as a patternmaker for her own line, Lamy. The woman, if she ever passed you by, with her jet black hair, tattooed ring armoured fingers, henna dyed nails, post apocalyptic dark aesthetic, gold teeth and a serious tribal influence in her accessory game has an awesome (if somewhat alarming?) presence that will make you sit up and pay attention!
To me, she looks like an anachronism; an ancient witch or druid somehow pulled out of time and living in our world. Or some neo-Touareg henna manicured Afrique gypsy perhaps! Her gnarly, adorned, stained hands are about as intriguing to me as fashion itself. The images of her exiting the car and enjoying the cigarette on a popular street style blog had everybody frantically guessing how she managed the insane stained fingers; henna maybe? No, it looks drippy. It has to be ink! 
Predictably, I too fell down a Michele Lamy shaped rabbit hole and stumbled upon some hand portraits of her done by Rick Owens (the first image here with the lavish fur background). It was confirmed in the description that her fingers were dipped in tar. Not ink, not henna, TAR! I suppose, as a child, if I hadn't dreamed of being a writer or a painter, the ink stained/paint dipped, signature artist hands wouldn't have fascinated me so endlessly to write a whole post about them! :)
UPDATE: The infamous Rick Owens Inspired Washed Leather Biker Jacket now in The Republic Of Chic Store! :)