Rick Owens Micro Biker Jacket

Horse is the least common of the garment leathers and the least forgiving, which is why almost nobody cuts a jacket from it. The hide is dense and tight-grained, with a fibre structure closer to a hard shell than to the soft, open lamb most leather jackets use, so it resists creasing, holds an edge, and takes years rather than weeks to break in. What you get in exchange is a leather that keeps its line when a lamb piece would have collapsed into the body. This one is chrome tanned in Hyōgo Prefecture, the region that has done the great majority of Japan's tanning for generations and is the reason Japanese hide has the reputation it does.

Then the pattern does something the material did not have to accommodate. It is cropped to an extreme, sitting high above the waist with a conventional biker's architecture compressed into it: a double breasted front, a wide lapel, an asymmetric closure. Ultra-cropped jackets usually simplify, because there is not enough garment left to carry detail. This does not simplify. It keeps the full biker vocabulary and then removes the body it normally lives on, and the tension between those two decisions is the entire piece.

We took this for the hide before the shape. Horse leather of this quality is rare enough that most people have never handled it, and the difference against lamb is obvious within about four seconds of picking it up. The crop is the second reason and the harder sell, and it is the honest one: this is not a jacket that goes with everything, it is a jacket that decides the outfit. We would rather carry one of those than three that hedge.

The biker jacket is the garment this house is most often asked to make, and the extreme croppings are where it stops repeating itself.

One hundred percent leather, made in Italy, in black. The hide is horsehide, chrome tanned in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Ultra-cropped, with a double-breasted front, an asymmetric closure, and a wide lapel.

Very short. It ends well above the waist, so what is worn underneath is not a background detail, it is half of what anyone sees. Horse leather has almost no give when new and softens slowly rather than quickly, which means the fit you try on is close to the fit you will have for the first year. Cut close through the chest, so a tee or a fine knit underneath and nothing thicker. We do not hold measurements for it, and would rather you tried it.

Over something long, because the proportion only works when there is length below it: a floor-length trouser, a bias skirt, a dress. Over a fine knit rather than a heavy one. It does not layer under anything, and there is no version of this that works as a middle piece.

No water, no direct heat, no plastic bag. Hang it broad and let it air after wearing. Horse is harder than lamb and marks less easily, but the chrome-tanned surface still scuffs on abrasion, so keep it clear of rough bags and walls. A leather specialist rather than a high street cleaner if it ever needs attention. We prefer to advise on conditioning in person rather than on a schedule. Our care guidance covers leather in more detail.

For the same idea in lamb, the Giacca Classic Biker Jacket. In calf and cut short, the Cropped Jumbo Bauhaus Stooges. For the length underneath, the Bolan Bootcut Trousers. Everything we currently hold from Rick Owens is listed together.