Indigo Foliage Kimono 'Konoha'

Leaves and branches printed a shade lighter into navy, like a batik, tied in grey-blue

The pattern on this kimono looks like it was made with wax. Leaves and branches run across a deep navy ground in a lighter indigo, their edges slightly broken and their surfaces mottled, the way a resist dye leaves a pattern when the wax cracks in the vat. It covers the whole cloth, body and sleeves, at a scale where a single branch crosses a shoulder. The obi is pale grey-blue, wide and flat, the lightest tone on the garment.

It is the piece in the men's range that reads most like a textile rather than a print, because the mottling is the look of a craft, and the two blues are the palette of every indigo cloth Japan ever made. From across a room it is a navy robe with a shadow in it. From across a table it is a forest.

The name, Konoha, means tree leaves, the foliage of the print, and the word carries the sound of leaves in wind in Japanese, which is what the pattern looks like.

It is printed, not resist-dyed, though it is drawn to look it, with the cracks and the mottling kept in the print. The cloth is polyester with a dry hand and a slight texture, chosen because two blues this close must stay distinct through washing, and because a kimono for the warm months should hang light.

The obi is included. Cross the fronts left over right, wrap the pale obi twice at the waist and knot it at the hip. The light obi across the dark foliage is the one contrast on the outfit, and it is enough.

At three metres it is a navy robe with a texture in it. At thirty centimetres the texture becomes leaves, every one drawn, with the broken edges and the mottled fill of the dye the print is imitating. It is built for the second look.

The cut is long, falling to the ankle, with wide square sleeves and the room to move. Worn at home it is a robe with a garden in the dark. Worn out with dark sandals it is an evening outfit that reads navy from the street and botanical from the table, and it goes with white, grey and any blue.

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