Rick Owens Cappucio in Maglia- Hood

A hood is normally a component. It is cut as part of a coat or a sweatshirt, it hangs down the back when it is not being used, and it has no independent existence. Detaching it and making it a garment in its own right changes what it is for: it can be worn with a coat that has no hood, it can be layered under one that does, and the head can be covered without committing the whole upper body to a particular jacket. That is a genuinely practical idea presented as a severe one.

Ribbed cashmere is the right knit for it. Rib alternates columns of face and reverse stitches, so the fabric compresses and expands across its width and then returns, which means the hood grips the head without a drawstring and comes back to shape when it is pushed down. Cashmere gives it the weight to sit rather than float. The name is the house being literal twice: cappuccio is Italian for hood, and in maglia means knitted, so the title says what it is in two languages before it says it in English.

Winter here is dry, bright, and colder than people expect, and the useful garment is almost always the small one. A hood you can put on and take off independently of your coat is a better answer to that than a heavier coat is. It also happens to be a plain, severe object with no logo on it anywhere, which is harder to find than it should be.

The house has a long habit of cutting a garment's component parts loose and selling them as garments, and the knitted hood is the clearest example of it.

Ninety-seven percent cashmere and three percent wool, made in Italy, in black. Ribbed knit.

Rib grips and recovers, so it holds to the head without fastening and returns to shape after being pushed back. It sits over the shoulders rather than tucking into a collar, so it layers over a knit or a shirt and under a coat with a wide enough neck. There is no drawstring and no adjustment; the knit is doing it.

Under a coat with an open collar, which is what it is for. Over a fine knit. Pushed back at the shoulders, where it reads as a cowl rather than as a hood.

Cashmere is worn several times between cleanings, rested flat, and never hung, which stretches a knit at whatever point takes the weight. Hand wash cool with a wool detergent at most, do not wring it, and dry it flat and reshaped. Our care guidance covers cashmere and the other hair fibres in more detail.

For the version that also works as a scarf, the Hood. Worn at the neck instead, the F/W 25 Follo Scarf. For the same cashmere as a sweater, the Maglia Naska Lupetto. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.