Rick Owens Jumbo Tabard Top

A tabard is a medieval garment: a panel front, a panel back, and not much interest in what the body is doing in between. Borrowing the word here tells you the intention. This is cut jumbo and square, so the shoulder line sits wide of the actual shoulder and the whole thing hangs as two planes of silk with the wearer somewhere inside. The level shoulder seams and the back yoke are the only structure in it, and they exist to make the planes hang correctly rather than to shape anything.

Silk this fine is semi-sheer, which is doing deliberate work rather than being a side effect. What is underneath is visible as a suggestion, so the garment reads as two layers at once: the silk, and the shadow of whatever it is over. Long sleeves with buttoned cuffs are the one concession to conventional shirting, and they matter, because a cuff that fastens is what keeps a garment this loose from becoming formless at the wrist.

It is a ceremonial shape rendered in a fabric that weighs nothing. That combination is unusual and it is the reason to own it.

Why we selected it

Very few houses will cut a garment this large and still expect it to be worn rather than looked at, and fewer still get the proportion right. This one is wearable, and that surprised us. We bought it as the piece that demonstrates what the women’s line does when it is not making a tee: an idea about volume, executed in a material with no body of its own, which is a much harder brief than volume in a stiff cloth. It also works over almost everything we sell, which is not a small consideration in a garment this particular.

The sheer and semi-sheer work is a running thread in the women’s collections, and the Tabard is the version where the transparency is structural rather than an accent.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent silk, made in Italy, in black and pearl. Semi-sheer. Jumbo square cut, hip length, long sleeves with buttoned cuffs, level shoulder seams, and a back yoke.

Fit notes

Jumbo is a description of the intended proportion, not an accident of sizing, so this is meant to be worn large and taking a smaller size to make it fit closer defeats the design. It sits at the hip. Over a close-cut base layer it reads as a deliberate layer; over nothing it reads as a very different garment, which is a decision to make in front of a mirror rather than in a browser. Silk of this weight has almost no recovery, so it hangs from the shoulder seam and does not spring back.

Styling

Over the Basic Rib Tank or the Cropped Level T, where the tension between the close layer and the loose one is the whole outfit. Over black trousers. Under nothing, because a coat over it defeats it.

Care

Silk this fine does not go in a machine and does not go in a dryer. Hand wash cool if at all, or take it to a cleaner who is used to silk, and dry it flat away from direct light, which fades silk faster than washing damages it. Our care guidance covers the general ground.

Related pieces

For transparency used as construction rather than as effect, the Collage T-Shirt. As base layers, the Basic Rib Tank and the Cropped Level T. For the opposite approach to volume, the LS Babel Top. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.