Kanji Calligraphy Jogger Pants 'Fude'

Grey joggers with three characters brushed down one leg in white and gold

Three characters, brushed, down the outside of the right leg. They are embroidered in white on a slubbed grey cloth in the style of a calligrapher's stroke, dry at the edges, with a small gold script beside them, and the rest of the joggers is plain: a soft waist, a gathered ankle, slash pockets. It is the pair in the collection with writing on it, and the writing is the only thing on it.

The characters are Chinese, and they read as a phrase about the country and a feeling for it; we say so rather than let a reader find out. They are drawn well, and the brush shows.

The name, Fude, is the brush, the thing the characters were written with, and the name is for the stroke rather than the words.

The cut is a relaxed jogger with room through the thigh and an ankle that gathers on an elastic over the shoe, sitting at the waist. 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 characters are embroidered, not printed, in satin stitch with the gold in a metallic thread.

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 grey pants with white marks on one leg. From close the marks are characters, with the dry edges of the brush in thread, and the gold script shows its letters. They are the pair for someone who likes calligraphy and can wear it.

The waist is a flat elastic with a drawstring inside, and the pockets are set in the side seams so the characters have the leg to themselves. The gather at the ankle is an elastic in a channel.

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.