Rick Owens Abito Wrap Dress

Cupro is worth understanding before you buy it, because a great deal of what is written about it is marketing. It is a regenerated cellulose fibre spun from cotton linter, the very short fibres left clinging to the seed after ginning, which would otherwise be waste. What that produces is a filament with a smooth, cool surface and a heavier drape than its weight suggests: it falls rather than floats, it takes a saturated colour, and it holds a temperature against the skin the way a cellulose fibre does and a synthetic does not.

That is exactly what a wrap dress needs. A wrap is held together by drape and tension rather than by structure, so a cloth that hangs from the shoulder in a straight fall is doing the entire job. In a stiffer fabric a wrap dress bunches at the tie and stands away at the hip. In this one it does neither.

The black and milk pattern is the unusual part, and it is why this dress is either exactly right for someone or entirely wrong. There is no middle position on it, and we like that.

Most of what we buy from this house is monochrome, and we went looking for the exception. A pattern only earns its place when the cut is quiet enough to carry it, and the wrap is the quietest shape Owens makes. We also wanted a fluid dress that is not silk, because cupro washes and travels in a way silk does not forgive.

One hundred percent cupro. Made in Italy, in Black and Milk. Wrap construction with a self-tie closure.

A wrap adjusts to the wearer more than almost any other dress shape, which makes it a forgiving size but not an infinitely forgiving one, since the shoulder and the depth of the crossover are fixed. Cupro has very little stretch, so the tie is doing all of the adjusting. It relaxes slightly with wear across a day and recovers when rested.

With a flat sandal in warm weather and with a boot and a heavy coat when it turns. A pattern this graphic wants everything else plain, so we would keep the shoe and the bag in one colour and let the dress work.

Cupro is happiest hand washed cool and dried flat away from direct heat; it can water-spot if it is dried carelessly, and it presses at a low temperature. Do not wring it. Our care guidance covers the general principles.

We would point to the Slip Dress in cupro, the SS26 Combo Slip Dress, and the SL Tommykite V. We also hold the Abito wrap dress in an acetate-silk crepe, which is a different garment rather than a second colourway. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.