Black and Magenta Dragon Sukajan 'Enryu'

A dragon in silver and magenta across the back, on an all-black jacket with snaps

Magenta is a colour no sukajan had until recently, and on this one it is the dragon's. The animal fills the back in silver-grey thread with its mane, whiskers and the edges of its scales picked out in magenta, so it reads as a silver dragon from a distance and a pink one from close. On the chest, waves in grey thread curl over both shoulders with red petals falling through them. The body and sleeves are black, the front closes with snaps, and the ribbing is black with a magenta stripe.

It is the modern one of the black sukajan, the one whose palette belongs to a city at night rather than a tattoo parlour, and it is the one that goes with trainers in a colour.

The name, Enryu, is the flame dragon, the animal with fire in its mane, and the magenta is the fire.

Every motif is embroidered, not printed, in dense satin stitch that stands off the cloth and catches the light differently as you move; that is the whole point of a sukajan, and it is the reason the jacket weighs what it does. The body is a satin blend with a soft sheen and a light lining, and the collar, cuffs and hem are a ribbed knit, the construction of every sukajan since the first ones were sewn for American sailors in Yokosuka. It closes with snap buttons and has a slash pocket at each hip. It washes cold, inside out, on a gentle cycle, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over black with black jeans for a jacket that is one dark shape with a silver-and-pink animal on it. Nothing else with a pattern.

From across a street it is a black bomber with a pale shape on the back. From close the dragon has every scale in silver and every edge in magenta, and the waves on the chest every curl. It is the sukajan for someone who wants a dragon that has not been embroidered a thousand times before.

The sleeves are set in raglan, plain black, and the waves on the chest run onto them from the shoulder, so the front reads as water and the back as the animal that came out of it. The magenta in the ribbing is the one place the colour appears off the dragon.

Sizes run from M to XXXL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.