Rick Owens Mastodon Cargo

Cargo trousers are woven almost without exception, because the pocket architecture needs a cloth stable enough to hold an applied panel without distorting around the stitching. Building them in jersey means solving that instead of avoiding it, and the reward is a garment with the whole cargo vocabulary that moves like a knit. Jersey stretches in every direction, so this follows the leg rather than sitting away from it, and the pockets sit against the body instead of standing off it.

The finishing follows the material rather than the category. Ribbed cuffs at the ankle and an elastic drawstring at the waist are knitwear solutions, not trouser solutions, and using them here is an admission of what the garment actually is. The trim carries a small percentage of elastane where the rib needs to recover; the body does not, and does not need to.

Cardinal red is the other decision, and on a garment this relaxed it is the thing that stops it reading as leisurewear.

Why we selected it

This is the trouser from this house that gets worn on a Sunday, and there are not many. The jersey construction is the reason: it is genuinely comfortable rather than comfortable for the category, and the detail is all still there, which means it does not look like the compromise it structurally is.

The house builds a great deal of what other labels would weave, and the jersey trousers are where that habit is most useful.

Materials and construction

Body one hundred percent organic cotton; trim ninety-seven percent organic cotton and three percent elastane. Made in Italy, in cardinal red. Jersey cargo construction with a slim fit, ribbed cuffs, and an elastic drawstring waist.

Fit notes

Slim through the leg with the cuff gathering at the ankle, so the volume sits mid-leg and disappears at the bottom. Jersey gives in every direction, so the drawstring is doing the fitting and the size on the label matters less than it would in a woven. Cotton jersey relaxes across a day and recovers with washing. Take your usual size.

Styling

With a plain tee and a substantial shoe. Under a long coat, where a tapered ankle stops the coat from looking bottom-heavy. Against black, since the red is the only colour required.

Care

Cotton jersey washes cool inside out. Keep it out of a hot dryer, which is what fades a saturated red and what shortens the life of the elastane in the cuffs. Dry flat rather than hanging. Our care guidance covers cotton in more detail.

Related pieces

For the house jersey trouser without the cargo pockets, the Tecuatl Track Pant. In a woven rather than a jersey, the Cargo Long. In cardinal red again, the Bauhaus Jogger. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.