Dragon Head Bomber Jacket 'Ryuto'

A dragon's head in silver line across the back of a black flight jacket

One head, drawn large. The dragon on the back of this bomber is only a head, horns back, whiskers streaming, jaws open, embroidered in silver line on matte black so the black shows through the scales and the animal reads as a drawing rather than a fill. On the right chest, the same head smaller. The jacket is a flight jacket: black nylon, black ribbing, a ring-pull zip, a zipped pocket on the left sleeve.

It is the most graphic of the bombers and the one that reads sharpest from a distance, because a single silver line on black carries further than a colour, and a head carries further than a body.

The name, Ryuto, is the dragon head, which is what it has, and the name describes the jacket rather than selling it.

The dragon is embroidered, not printed, in line rather than fill, in a single silver thread. The body is a matte nylon blend with a light quilted lining, the cloth of a flight jacket rather than a souvenir one, with ribbed knit at the collar, cuffs and hem, a metal zip, a slash pocket at each hip and a zipped pocket on the left sleeve. It washes cold, inside out, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over black with black jeans and white trainers. It goes with everything that has no pattern, and with anything grey.

From across a street it is a black bomber with a pale mark on the back. From close the head has every scale drawn in one thread, the whiskers every curl, and the small head on the chest its horns. It is the sukajan for someone who wants a dragon and wants it to be a drawing.

A flight jacket differs from a satin sukajan in the cloth and the collar: the nylon is matte and takes the weather, and the ribbing is plain and closes at the neck. It is cut a little slimmer, so a knit goes under it in the cold.

The head on the chest is the same head as the back, a quarter of the size, and it faces inward so the two read as one animal when the zip is closed. The ring-pull is brass and the sleeve zip black, and the ribbing is plain, so the silver line is the only thing that is not black or brass.

Sizes run from S to 3XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.