Rick Owens Athena T – Black

The Athena is the plain one. There is no construction to point at, no signature seam to identify it, and nothing applied to the surface, which makes it the garment in the line that has to succeed entirely on the cloth. So the cloth is where the decision was made: ninety percent cotton and ten percent cashmere.

Ten percent is a small figure and it is not a token one. Cashmere fibre is finer and shorter than cotton, and blending it through a jersey changes the hand rather than the look. The surface loses the flat dryness a plain cotton jersey has, the cloth sits warmer against the skin without sitting heavier, and it falls a little instead of hanging straight. None of that photographs. All of it is obvious the moment the garment is picked up, which is the difference between a plain black tee and a plain black tee worth keeping.

Styling and care

With black trousers. Under either leather jacket. Under the Peter Cardigan. For care, treat it as cotton with one exception: the cashmere is the fibre in it that suffers first from heat, so wash cool inside out, dry it flat, and keep it out of a dryer altogether. Heat is also what takes the depth out of a black cotton. Our care guidance covers cotton in more detail.

We wanted the plainest thing this house makes, for the customer who wants one piece from it and does not want a project. This is it. The blend is why it survives being that plain: with nothing on a garment the hand is the whole argument, and ten percent cashmere is what wins it.

Ninety percent cotton and ten percent cashmere, made in Italy, in black. Jersey, with nothing applied to it.

Cotton jersey follows the body without clinging and relaxes across a day. The cashmere in it recovers with rest rather than with washing, so a night lying flat does more for this than a wash cycle does. Take your usual size.

The same model in another season is the Athena T - Black Cashmere Blend Jersey, the same ninety-ten cloth despite the longer name. For a plain tee with short sleeves, the Basic SS T and the T-Shirt Level T. Cut as a dress, the Athena Dress. The Rick Owens designer page has the house’s own account of itself. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.