Rick Owens F/W 25 Gary Jacket

Stretch leather is not leather that stretches. It is a hide bonded to a textile backing, here a cotton and elastane cloth, so that the panel can extend under load and then return to where it started. Ordinary leather does the first half of that and not the second: it gives where you stress it and stays given, which is why tight leather garments end their lives baggy at the elbow and flat at the shoulder.

That difference is the entire reason this jacket can be drawn as sleekly as it is. The zip runs asymmetrically across the front, the line is close, and there is no ease built into the pattern to compensate for a stiff material, because the material is not stiff. What you are buying is a leather jacket with the fit discipline of a knit.

It is from Concordians, the F/W 25 collection, named for the town in the Veneto where the house produces.

Leather jackets are usually a compromise between line and comfort and this one refuses the trade. We took it for the same reason we took its sibling: it is the piece a customer wears rather than admires. The F/W 25 version is the Italian-made one and the plainer of the two, which for a jacket this close to the body is the right way round.

The Gary is the house's close-cut biker, and this is the F/W 25 version of it.

Sixty-five percent lamb, thirty-four percent cotton, one percent spandex, made in Italy, in black. Asymmetric zip closure, sleek fit.

Cut close, and intended to be. The stretch backing gives real movement and real recovery, so a snug fit will not become a slack one over a season, and sizing up mostly costs you the line. It goes over a tee or a thin knit and nothing heavier.

With a straight or wide trouser to answer the closeness above the waist. Over a fine knit. Boots.

Not at home and not at an ordinary dry cleaner. A bonded leather can be damaged through its backing as well as its face, so it wants a leather specialist who is told what it is. Wipe the face with a barely damp cloth, keep it off heat, and hang it broad. Our care guidance covers conditioning, and its position is that less is safer than more.

Alongside it, the S/S 26 Gary Jacket. The Giacca Classic Biker Jacket is full lamb leather, and the F/W 25 SL Flight Vest and the F/W 25 Island Jacket come from the same collection. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.