How to Brush Your Teeth Like Rick Owens

The American designer speaks to AnOther as he releases an unlikely new collaboration with luxury oral care brand Selahatin

Oral care may seem like a daily mundanity, devoid of ceremony, but for Selahatin founder Kristoffer Vural, the small act became a ritual of joy during his recovery from a stroke. Left hypersensitive to taste and smell, he began to question the jarring, chemically familiar flavours associated with toothbrushing, imagining a more mindful, sensorial approach instead. Selahatin was founded on that shift: elevating oral care into a ritualistic form of self-care through unorthodox aromas and flavours. It’s this deliberate sanctifying of the everyday that now finds an unlikely but intuitive counterpart in Rick Owens.

For Owens, this introduction to Selahatin’s world was visual: “THE ELEGANCE OF THE PACKAGING AND THEN THE ELEGANCE OF THE PRODUCT SEDUCED ME INTO MAKING IT A DAILY PART OF MY LIFE,” he says. After mentioning the brand in an interview, Vural shared the quote alongside a blurred image of the designer – a gesture Owens appreciated for its boldness and cheek. What began as a personal habit evolved into collaboration, rooted in shared ideas of restraint, intention, and essentialism. 

The Selahatin x Rick Owens collaboration spans four products: a whitening toothpaste, mouthwash, Eau d’Extrait Oral (‘perfume for the mouth’), and a handcrafted horn-and-boar-bristle toothbrush, alongside a pared-back travel set. Rather than novelty, the focus is on use: these objects are designed to be returned to, day after day, until they become part of the body’s rhythm. “IF YOU’RE GOING TO PUT SOMETHING IN YOUR MOUTH EVERY DAY, IT MIGHT AS WELL BE CRAFTED ELEGANTLY INSTEAD OF PLASTIC,” says Owens. “THERE ARE SO MANY KINDS OF BEAUTIFUL CUTLERY – WHY NOT TOOTHBRUSHES?”

At the centre is a bespoke aroma developed by Vural for Owens. Described as “monochrome,” it plays with verbena, vanilla, Sichuan pepper, juniper, dark citrus, rosemary, black pepper, and peppermint. Vural, who experiences synaesthesia following his stroke, often describes flavour as colour, each aroma composed like a painting. “WE ARE ALL USED TO USING STANDARD DETERGENTS IN OUR MOUTHS – DOING SOMETHING MORE SOFTLY POETIC FOR SUCH AN INTIMATE DAILY PROCEDURE JUST SEEMED LIKE A NICE IDEA,” explains Owens. For Vural, the process was one of translation rather than departure: Selahatin’s intimacy pushed into a darker, more sculptural register. 

Together, they reframe oral care as a personal and precise, rather than a routine. Owens is exacting about the gestures that structure his day – “I READ FRENCH EVERY MORNING WITH A TUTOR, TAKE A NAP AFTER LUNCH FOR AN HOUR AND WORK OUT EVERY NIGHT BEFORE DINNER AT THE HOTEL DOWN THE STREET” – and Selahatin has become part of that daily discipline. 

Rick Owens x Selahtin is available now.