Men's Wave Trim Kimono Jacket 'Aranami'

Black, a white line down the front, and waves breaking on both sleeves

Three colours, and each one has a job. Black is the jacket: solid, matte, front and back. White is the line: a narrow contrast edge that runs down both front openings from collar to hem and along the back of the neck, sharp as chalk. Blue is the wave: a band of breaking surf in the old woodblock style, printed at the lower end of each sleeve, with white foam curling off the crests. That is the whole design, and it does not need a fourth thing.

A cord tie sits at the chest and can be knotted to close the front or left to hang. Tied, the white edges meet in the middle and the jacket reads almost formal. Open, the two white lines frame the tee, and the waves on the sleeves become the only pattern in sight, which is exactly the right amount.

The waves are printed, not embroidered, and printed with the foam kept white against the black so that they read from across a room. The cloth is polyester, matte and light, chosen because black stays black on it and because a summer layer should weigh nothing. It is a warm-weather jacket that looks sharper than most warm-weather jackets manage.

The cut is a relaxed open kimono jacket: flat edge down both fronts, wide sleeves to the elbow, hem at the hip. Over a white tee, the white of the tee and the white of the edging line up and the front becomes a set of stripes with a black field between them. Over black, the edging is the only light left, and the waves glow.

Wear it with black trousers or dark denim, and white shoes if you want to pick up the line. It is the graphic piece in the collection, the one that looks designed rather than decorated, and it suits people who like their Japan in a single reference. One wave is enough. Hokusai only needed one.

The name, Aranami, means rough waves, and the print on the sleeves is that particular Japanese rough: the crest curling over into claws of foam, the water drawn in bands of two blues, the whole thing caught at the top of its rise. It is the image everyone knows, reduced to a cuff. Putting it there rather than across the back is the kind of restraint that looks easy and is not.

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.