Japanese Tiger Bomber Jacket 'Kinko'

A gold tiger drawn in line on a plain black bomber, one at the chest

This is the sukajan idea on a flight jacket. The body is a matte black bomber with black ribbing, a ring-pull zip and a zipped pocket on the left sleeve, and the embroidery is gold and nothing else: a small tiger head on the left chest, and across the back a tiger drawn in gold line, prowling down and to the left with its stripes rendered as open pattern rather than fill. The other version has the tiger in white thread on the same black.

It is the sukajan for someone who does not want satin, the one that reads as a bomber from across a street and as a Japanese jacket from close, and it is the one in the range you can wear to work.

The name, Kinko, is the golden tiger, the animal in the thread it is drawn in.

The tiger is embroidered, not printed, in a line rather than a fill, so the black shows through the stripes and the jacket stays light. The body is a matte polyester blend with a light lining, the ribbing is knit, and the zips are metal. It washes cold, inside out, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over anything, because a black bomber with one gold animal on it goes with every wardrobe that has a pair of jeans in it.

From across a street it is a black bomber. From close the tiger head on the chest shows its stripes and the tiger on the back shows its line, drawn in a single gold thread, and the sleeve pocket shows its zip. It is the quietest sukajan in the range, and the one bought most often by people who thought they did not want one.

The sleeve pocket is the flight-jacket detail, zipped, big enough for a card and a key, and the ring-pull on the front zip is the other. The ribbing is plain black, without a stripe, so the jacket reads as a bomber before it reads as anything else. The white-thread version is the same jacket in negative.

It is cut a little slimmer than the satin sukajan, closer to a flight jacket through the body, and it takes a knit underneath in the cold. The ring-pull is brass, the sleeve zip black.

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