At Her London Opening, Michèle Lamy Reveals the Secret to 20 Years of Marriage (Hint: You Smoke It)

It’s past midnight in Ladbroke Hall’s Sunbeam Theatre. The revellers move under a wash of crimson and the deep hum of electronic music. Into this space comes Michèle Lamy, moving like a current—hostess and high priestess. It’s the launch party for “Rust Never Sleeps”, the latest presentation of Rick Owens Furniture at Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

The exhibition’s title nods to a Neil Young lyric, but Lamy, its curator and Owens’s long-time collaborator, wife, and partner, tips it toward something more elemental: “It’s a good image for what’s going on in the world,” she says in an interview earlier in the day, elevating the standard for how to dress on a Zoom call. “Rust is about time, about resistance, about living through what’s happening—and doing something, not just saying something.”