Oscar-nominated costume designer Arianne Phillips is best known for creating looks for movies including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Girl, Interrupted, and Tom Ford’s A Single Man, but it was 1995 riotous cult comic movie Tank Girl, starring Lori Petty, Iggy Pop, Naomi Watts, and Ice T, where she found her feet. Having previously worked largely on music videos, Tank Girl was one of her first forays into film, with its influence on fashion still running deep to this day.
It wasn’t just Phillips finding her feet creatively though. As she reveals in a new interview with Dazed, one of her good friends – whose name you might just be familiar with – worked alongside her to create some of Tank Girl’s subversive, punk-inspired looks. Step forward Rick Owens, who, at the point at which the movie was in production, was an unknown designer taking his first steps towards founding his own label (which launched in 1994, FYI).
According to Phillips, Owens worked with her on three pieces for Tank Girl: one jacket, a skirt, and a particularly stand-out coat, which she cites as one of her favourite looks from the film. “Half of the coat is made of army fatigue pants, mashed up with denim and leather jackets, with different sleeves, kind of like a patchwork look,” she explains. “It was super fun to work with him.”
To read the full interview with Phillips, in which she discusses the film’s lasting legacy and its enduring influence on fashion, head here.
Take a look back at Rick Owens’ AW20 menswear show below.