Rick Owens Boxer Swimmer

Twenty-seven percent elastane is a great deal for a swim short, and it is the number that decides how this behaves. Most swimwear runs a small percentage of elastane in a nylon ground, enough to recover but not enough to shape, which is why most swim shorts fill with water and hang heavy coming out of it. At this proportion the cloth is closer to a performance knit: it holds against the body, sheds water quickly because there is less air trapped in the structure, and returns to shape rather than stretching out at the waist and thigh over a season.

The rest is conventional and correctly so. A mesh inner lining, an elasticated drawstring at the waist, and two inset pockets rather than applied ones, so nothing stands off the leg. The nylon is recycled, which is stated in the composition rather than only claimed. What makes it a piece from this house is almost entirely the proportion and the absence of anything else on it.

Why we selected it

Swimwear is where a design house usually stops trying, and we did not want to carry the version that has a logo on it and nothing else. This one is engineered rather than branded. It also holds its shape after a season of chlorine and sun, which is the only test that matters and the one most swimwear fails.

The house’s swimwear is cut plainly and specified carefully, which is the opposite of how most design houses approach the category.

Materials and construction

Seventy-three percent recycled nylon and twenty-seven percent elastane, made in Italy, in black. Mesh inner lining, elasticated drawstring waist, and two inset pockets.

Fit notes

Cut close for the category, and the elastane means it holds rather than drapes, so take your usual size rather than sizing up. The drawstring adjusts the waist genuinely rather than decoratively. Expect it to feel snug dry and looser wet, which is the correct direction for swimwear and the reverse of what cotton does.

Styling

As swim shorts, and as shorts, which the close cut and the plain black permit in a way most swimwear does not. With a plain tee.

Care

Elastane is destroyed by heat and by chlorine in that order, so rinse them in cold fresh water immediately after swimming, do not wring them, and dry them flat out of direct sun. Never put them in a dryer and never sit on a hot surface in them, which is what breaks down elastane fastest of all. Our care guidance covers synthetics in more detail.

Related pieces

The same short in dust is the Boxer Swimmer in dust. Cut for the water in a different shape, the Prong Bather. With it, the Basic SS T. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.