Rick Owens Calf Bias Skirt – Mahogany

Bias is the whole garment. Cutting a pattern at forty-five degrees to the weave rather than square to it changes the behaviour of the cloth completely: threads that have almost no give along their own length will stretch and recover on the diagonal, so a bias skirt follows the body without being fitted and swings when the wearer turns. It is the reason a bias cut looks fluid in a fabric that is not itself stretchy.

It is also expensive. Bias consumes considerably more cloth than a straight cut, it will not forgive an inaccurate pattern, and the finished garment has to hang for a period before hemming so the fabric can drop under its own weight. Almost no one does it at volume any more, which is why a genuinely bias-cut skirt is worth noticing at all.

The cloth is sixty-one percent acetate and thirty-nine percent silk, which is a light, fluid blend with a low lustre rather than a shine. Acetate carries the drape and the weight; silk gives the strength and the depth of colour. The hem is left raw, which on a bias cut is a deliberate refusal, since the diagonal edge is exactly the one that dressmaking convention insists on binding.

The colour

A deep red-brown with more red in it than a chestnut and more brown than a burgundy, which puts it in the narrow band where a colour is rich without being loud. On a fluid cloth it shifts noticeably as the skirt moves, which black does not do. It is the harder of the two to buy and the more interesting to own.

We buy bias when it is cut properly, and it usually is not. This skirt does the one thing that only bias does, in a cloth light enough to show it. The elastic waist is the unglamorous second reason: it means a skirt that moves like this can still be pulled on in the morning.

Sixty-one percent acetate and thirty-nine percent silk. Made in Italy. Calf length, bias cut, elastic waist, raw hem. In Mahogany and in Black.

The elastic waist fits over a range rather than to a measurement. A bias cut sits close at the hip and releases below it, so the skirt reads narrower at the top and fuller at the hem than the same measurement cut straight. A bias hem settles unevenly over the first wearings, which is the cloth dropping and not a fault.

With brown or black leather, and with a plain knit. Mahogany against bone or cream is the pairing worth trying. A flat shoe in the day, a boot in the evening.

Acetate is heat-sensitive and water-spots readily, so this is a dry-clean cloth in practice and should be pressed cool through a cloth if at all. The raw hem is the finish and should not be trimmed or overlocked. Our care guidance covers the general principles.

We would point to the Calf Bias Skirt in Black, the Knee Bias Skirt, the SS26 A Line Bias Skirt, and the Drawstring Bias Trousers. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.