Rick Owens Bauhaus Jogger

The off-centre zip is the house signature and it is doing real work here. A zip that runs straight up the middle divides a garment into two equal halves and draws the eye to that division. Move it off centre and the front becomes one large plane and one narrow one, so the garment reads as a shape rather than as a pair of halves, and the closure stops being the first thing you see. It is a small displacement with a disproportionate effect, and it is why this piece looks like nothing else in a drawer of zip-front cotton.

Underneath the zip it is a sweatshirt, and there is no reason to be coy about that. A rib knit in cotton, long sleeves, two pockets. Rib is a knit structure of alternating raised and recessed columns, which gives it stretch across the body and recovery back, so a rib-knit piece follows the wearer without needing to be cut close, and it is why a zip-front top in rib holds its line where a jersey one goes slack at the opening.

Cardinal Red is not a subtle colour and is not meant to be.

Most of what this house makes, and most of what we buy from it, is black or muted enough to function as black. We wanted a piece that was not. The zip is what makes it worth having twice over, because a red sweatshirt is an ordinary thing to own and a red sweatshirt with the front reorganised around an off-centre closure is not.

One hundred percent cotton, made in Italy. Colour: Cardinal Red. A zip-front sweatshirt in rib knit, with an off-centre zip, long sleeves, and two pockets.

Rib knit stretches across the body and recovers, so it accommodates a range of fits and follows the wearer rather than holding a shape. Cotton rib relaxes with wear across a day and returns after washing. It layers under outerwear easily and over very little.

Under a black jacket, where the colour appears only at the neck and the cuff, or on its own with a black trouser if you want it to be the whole outfit. Both work; the first is the one most people will choose.

Machine wash cool, inside out, and dry flat or hang. Heat is what dulls a strong dyed cotton and takes the recovery out of rib, so keep it out of a hot dryer. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Hoodie and the Oversized LS Hoody are the hooded versions of the same layer. For the same off-centre closure in shearling, the Bauhaus Jacket, and in the same Cardinal Red, the Biker Level Round Neck. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.