Men's Skull Paisley Kimono Cardigan 'Dokuro'

From a distance it is blue paisley. Up close it has always been skulls

There is a trick in this cardigan, and it works every time. From across a room the print is a handsome blue paisley, the sort of thing a tailor might line a jacket with, in slate blue with pale scrollwork and a faint damask texture. Then someone stands next to you and sees that the pale shapes repeating in tidy columns are skulls. Grey-white, front-on, evenly spaced, dozens of them, on the front, the back and both sleeves.

It is not a horror print. The skulls are drawn small and calm, set into the paisley like medallions, and the blue is soft enough that the whole thing stays wearable in daylight. That is the point of it: the edge is there for anyone who looks, and invisible to anyone who does not. Most people notice at about the second drink.

The print is all over and printed, not woven, and printed sharply enough that each skull keeps its teeth. The cloth is polyester, which holds a fine repeat like this without the pattern going muddy, and which stays light on the shoulders. This is a spring and summer layer, an alternative to a shirt rather than to a coat.

The cut is a relaxed open kimono cardigan: flat edge down both fronts, no fastening, wide sleeves that stop at the elbow, hem at the hip. It hangs open, and over a plain white tee the pattern frames the white on either side. Over a black tee the blue goes darker and the skulls come forward a little.

Wear it with black or dark blue below, and nothing else patterned. The cardigan is doing something clever, and clever things do not need a crowd. If you like clothes that have a second reading, this is the one in the collection built for you.

A word on the paisley, since it does half the work. It is drawn in the damask manner, pale scrolls and teardrops on the blue, with a faint diamond lattice running behind it, and it is what gives the cardigan its texture from a distance. The skulls sit in the gaps between the scrolls, one per cell, so the repeat is regular without ever looking mechanical. It is a print that was clearly drawn by someone who enjoyed the joke and did not want to spoil it by explaining it.

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, and let the repeat hang straight.