Rick Owens Island Coat

A coat with no collar, no lapel, no buttons on show, and no pockets breaking the front has nowhere to hide. Everything a conventional coat uses to hold a customer's eye has been taken off this one, which leaves the cut, the length, and the way the cloth falls, and if any of those three are wrong the garment fails immediately. That is the reason to look closely at a design this plain rather than to walk past it.

What is left is the neckline and the wrap. The opening is square rather than rounded or notched, so it sits as a horizontal against the vertical of the body, and the front panels cross and hold rather than fasten. From there the wool falls uninterrupted to the ankle. Length is doing most of the work: an ankle-length coat moves differently from a knee-length one, with the weight of the cloth swinging from the shoulder, and that motion is the design.

Black wool, made in Italy, and nothing else declared.

Of the two cloths this coat is cut in, this is the one most people should buy: the plainer of the two, and in a garment where the whole idea is the silhouette, the silhouette is identical. It is also, quietly, the most formal thing a person can own without wearing a suit. There is nowhere it is inappropriate and nothing it competes with. We took it because a coat this severe either works completely or not at all, and this one works.

Island is the house's square-necked, wrapping line, and this is its full-length statement in plain wool.

One hundred percent wool, made in Italy, in black. Ankle length, square neck, wrap closure.

Length is the decision. This falls to the ankle and that proportion either reads as a column or as a coat that has overshot, with very little in between, so it is worth trying on rather than ordering on a size. The wrap closure gives some tolerance through the body, so the fit question is shoulder and length rather than waist. Allow for a knit underneath, not a jacket.

Over black or over grey, with a fine knit and a narrow trouser underneath. It will take a boot with a heel without the length becoming a problem. Nothing at the neck: the square opening is the design and a scarf cancels it.

Brush it, air it, and hang it on a broad shaped hanger with room around it. Wool wants cleaning far less often than most people think, and an unstructured coat is easily ruined by a heavy press, so choose the cleaner carefully and tell them what it is. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Island Coat in double cashmere is the same silhouette in a different cloth, the F/W 25 Island Jacket is the waist-length version, and the Lido Jacket is the cloth tailored short. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.