Rick Owens Giacca In Pelle Hollywood

The house's name for this tells you what it is: giacca in pelle is simply a leather jacket, and Hollywood is the model, which also exists in cupro jersey. Same idea, different material, and the difference is most of the point. In jersey the Hollywood is a soft wrap that ties at the waist. In lamb leather it is a jacket that ties, which is an unusual object, because almost no leather outerwear closes without hardware. Removing the zip removes the one detail that makes a leather jacket read as a leather jacket, and what is left is closer to a robe.

The surface is the second thing. This is blistered lamb, a treatment the house has used for years, in which the leather is worked so the outer layer raises and crusts rather than lying flat. It produces an irregular, slightly crumpled skin that takes light in patches. On black it is subtle. On pale blue it is the whole garment, because a light colour shows every variation in the surface.

It is the least conventional leather piece we have seen from this house and the clearest evidence that it treats leather as a cloth rather than as armour. No zip, no hardware, a colour that is not a leather colour, and a finish that is deliberately imperfect. We took it because someone who already owns a black biker will find nothing else like it, and because pale blue leather is nearly impossible to find made well.

Blistered lamb is one of the house's long-running leather treatments, and it is rarely worked in a colour this pale.

One hundred percent lamb leather, made in Italy. Colour: Pale Blue. Blistered finish, with a tie closure.

A tie closure means the fit through the body is set by the wearer rather than by the pattern, so the size question is shoulder and sleeve. Lamb leather is soft from the first wearing and relaxes slightly further at the elbow and shoulder. It layers over a fine knit or a shirt.

Over grey, white, or black, and not over another colour. A straight trouser. Because it ties rather than zips, it reads softer than a biker and can go where a leather jacket usually cannot.

Not at home and not at an ordinary dry cleaner. A pale, treated leather is the least forgiving surface a hide can carry: keep it out of direct sun, which fades it faster than wear does, wipe it with a barely damp cloth, and send it to a leather specialist who is told the finish is blistered, because a conventional refinish can flatten the texture that makes it what it is. Our care guidance covers conditioning, and its position is that less is safer than more, which matters twice over here.

The Giacca Hollywood in cupro is the same model in jersey. Alongside it, the Giacca In Pelle Naska Biker and the Brad Jacket, and the Turtle Coat in the same pale blue. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.