Golden Cloud Tobi Pants 'Saiun'

Navy pants with gold clouds embroidered at the ankles and a cloud sash, four colours

Gold clouds rise from the ankles of these pants, embroidered in a fine gold line on navy up to the shin, curling the way clouds curl on a lacquer box, and at the waist a short sash embroidered with the same clouds hangs from the drawstring at the front. The cut is the tobi, the wide trouser of the Japanese scaffolder, gathered at the ankle. It comes in navy, as in the photograph, in black, green and red.

It is the embroidered pair with the most gold and the least of it, because the clouds are a line, not a fill, and the navy shows through them.

The name, Saiun, is the auspicious cloud, the gold one, and the pants have it at both ends.

The cut is a relaxed tobi pant with room through the thigh and an ankle that gathers over the shoe, sitting at the waist on a drawstring with the sash hanging from it. The cloth is a linen-look cotton blend with a slubbed, dry hand and a little weight, chosen because a print or an embroidery this fine needs a ground with body, and because the slub gives a plain colour somewhere to go. The clouds are embroidered, not printed, in a gold thread, and the sash is a separate strip sewn to the waist.

Wear them with a white tee and white trainers, as in the photograph, which is the outfit every pair in this collection was photographed in and the one they are all best in. A black tee in the evening, a haori or a sukajan over the top when it turns, and nothing else with a pattern below the waist.

They wash cold, inside out, and dry on a line; the cloth does not crease into a map and does not need an iron, which is the point of a trouser cut for a street rather than an office.

From across a street they are navy pants with gold at the ankle. From close the clouds show their line, the sash its embroidery, and the cloth its slub. They are the pair for someone who wants gold on a trouser and wants it drawn.

The waist is a flat elastic with the drawstring and the sash at the front, and the pockets are set in the side seams. The gather at the ankle is an elastic in a channel, and the clouds rise from it on both legs.

Sizes run from M to 5XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.