Rick Owens Giacca- Classic Biker Jacket

The knit inserts are the detail that explains this jacket. Run your hand along the underside of the sleeve and the leather stops and a rib knit takes over, from roughly the underarm to the cuff. It is a solution to the oldest problem with leather outerwear, which is that leather does not stretch where the body bends most. A conventional biker jacket answers that with a looser sleeve, which spoils the line. This answers it by putting the give exactly where the movement is and leaving the outside of the sleeve as clean as the rest of the garment. From the front you see leather. From the inside of the arm you see why it moves.

Lamb leather is the other half. It is thin, light, and soft immediately, without the break-in that heavier hides ask for, and it drapes rather than holds. The funnel neck comes up instead of folding over, so there is no collar to arrange, and the three front zip pockets sit flat across the body instead of at the hip.

Why we selected it

This is the leather jacket we recommend most often, and the reason is comfort rather than drama. It is the one a customer puts on and does not take off, because the lamb is soft on the first wearing and the knit sleeves mean it does not fight you. It also holds its own against a great deal of what else is made in leather, and we have compared it against several. If someone wants one Rick Owens leather jacket and does not want to think about it again, this is the answer.

Leather is what this house is known for above everything else, and the Classic Biker is its most straightforward statement of it.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent lamb leather, made in Italy, in black. Funnel neck, three zipped front pockets, and knit inserts on the underside of the sleeves.

Fit notes

Lamb leather is soft from the first wearing and will relax further across the shoulder and elbow with wear, so the jacket you try on will become slightly more generous rather than less. The knit sleeve inserts give real movement, which means the fit through the arm can be closer than a leather jacket usually allows. A funnel neck sits against the throat, so try it with the knit or shirt you intend to wear under it. It layers over a fine knit and not over a heavy one.

Styling

Over anything black and over most things that are not. The funnel neck means it wants nothing at the throat, so no scarf and no collar showing above it. Straight or narrow trousers, and a boot.

Care

Not at home and not at an ordinary dry cleaner: cleaning and refinishing leather is specialist work. Between times, a barely damp cloth on the smooth leather is enough. Hang it on a broad hanger away from heat and sun, and treat the knit inserts as knit, which means keeping them out of the way of anything abrasive. Our care guidance covers conditioning, and its position is that less is safer than more.

Related pieces

The Giacca In Pelle Naska Biker uses the same knit insert construction. The Brad Jacket is calf leather; the S/S 26 Classic Biker Jacket in mesh is the same shape in an entirely different material. Also the Cropped Jumbo Bauhaus Stooges. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.