Glow Koi Embroidered Denim Jacket 'Hotaru'

A red-and-white koi embroidered on the back of a black denim jacket, with peonies

This is the sukajan idea on a denim jacket. The front is a trucker: a shirt collar, a button front, two chest pockets with flaps, washed black denim with the seams gone grey. The back is a koi, red and white, curling upward through cream peonies with a small red seal embroidered beside it, the fish of the tattoo tradition on the cloth of a workwear one. Nothing on the front says what is on the back.

It is the jacket for someone who wants the embroidery and not the satin, and it is the one in the range that will be worn most, because a black denim jacket goes with every wardrobe and this one has a fish on it.

The name, Hotaru, is the firefly, the light in the dark, which is what a red koi on black denim is.

The koi is embroidered, not printed, in dense satin stitch on the denim, with the scales in two reds and the peonies in cream. The denim is a washed black with a soft hand, chosen because embroidery this dense needs a firm ground and because black denim fades along the seams first, which is how the jacket will look better in a year. It washes cold, inside out, and hangs; the embroidery does not mind the machine.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over black with black jeans for the full column with a fish on it. It goes with everything denim goes with.

From across a street it is a black denim jacket. From close the koi has every scale and whisker, the peonies every petal, and the seal its characters. It is the sukajan for the person who does not think they want a sukajan, and it is the one to give them.

The trucker cut is the standard one, boxy through the body with a seam at the waist, two chest pockets and adjusters at the back hem, and the denim is washed so the seams have gone grey before the first wear. It is cut to sit at the hip, so the koi is at the middle of the back where a koi should be.

Sizes go up to 4XL, which no other jacket in the range does, and the cut is generous through the shoulder for it.

Sizes run from M to 4XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.