Hokusai Wave Kimono Jacket 'Okinami'

The great wave at the hem of a black jacket, a koi beside it

The wave breaks where a wave should, at the bottom, and the rest of the jacket is left black. Across the lower back and along the fronts, the famous crest rises in deep blue and white, its foam reaching in fingers over the small blue mountain and the boats below. To the right of it, a small koi in red and white swims upward. Two white clouds curl above. And across the shoulders, in white, a line of hiragana and a small word beneath it, set like the title on a print. Above the wave, nothing: black cloth.

That restraint is what makes it work. Where most wave jackets cover the whole back, this one gives the crest a third of the space and lets the black do the rest, so the wave reads as an image on a wall rather than as a pattern. It is the graphic version of the most famous picture Japan ever produced.

The name, Okinami, means the wave offshore, the deep-water swell of the picture's own title, seen from under its crest. The koi beside it is the small warm note in a cold scene, and the reason the jacket does not read as blue and black only.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the wave in flat, hard-edged colour the way the woodblock printed it, and the black kept matte around it. The cloth is a light polyester with a smooth surface and a soft drape, chosen because black must stay black and the whites must stay white through washing, and because a jacket this light should hang rather than stand. Three-quarter sleeves, open front, no fastening, hem at the hip.

At three metres it is a black jacket with a blue wave at the hem. At thirty centimetres the foam has every finger, the boats have their rowers, and the text across the shoulders can be read by anyone who reads it. It is the jacket for someone who wants the wave without the whole print.

The cut is a short open kimono jacket, relaxed through the body and easy at the shoulder. Over a white tee, the tee runs up between the two halves of the wave and the front becomes three panels, black, white, black. Over black, the jacket and the tee become one dark shape with the wave breaking at the bottom of it. It goes with black trousers, dark denim, and plain shoes.

It comes in one size, cut to drape with an easy fit. It is Asian sizing, so it sits closer than a Western one-size; if you are usually L or above, expect it to fit close rather than loose.