Men's White Patchwork Kimono Jacket 'Aizuri'

White, with indigo patchwork at the cuffs and hem, like a summer work coat

Plain white can look unfinished. This jacket finishes it with indigo. The body is a clean, slightly textured white, front and back, and a band runs along the hem and around the lower sleeves made of squares of blue-and-white pattern: hemp leaf, dots, checks, wave arcs, a small floral, each in its own indigo, pieced side by side like a strip of old mended cloth. On white, the band reads strongly, and the jacket becomes the summer version of the patchwork idea, blue and white, the oldest pairing in Japanese textiles.

It is the brighter, more daytime piece of the two. Where the black version keeps the patchwork for evenings, this one wears it at noon, and it looks right there, on a terrace, by the sea, anywhere the light is strong.

The name, Aizuri, is the word for a print made entirely in shades of indigo, a technique from the woodblock era when blue was the newest colour in Japan and printers used nothing else. The band is that idea in miniature: a dozen patterns, one colour, every shade of it.

The band is printed, not pieced, and printed sharply enough that the finest pattern in it keeps its lines. The cloth is polyester with a matte, dry hand, chosen because white is the colour that yellows first on cheaper cloth and this one stays white, and because a summer jacket should weigh nothing.

The cut is a short open kimono jacket: flat edge down both fronts, no fastening, wide sleeves that stop at the elbow, hem at the hip. Over a white tee, everything above the band goes tonal and the patchwork is the only event, the cleanest way to wear it. Over a charcoal or navy tee, the tee links to the band and the white body becomes a frame.

It goes with white trousers, light denim, stone, cream, and with indigo denim if you want the band and the trousers to speak to each other. Wear it in the heat. It was made for it.

The patterns in the band are the same ones you would find on a bolt of Japanese summer cloth: hemp leaf for growth, wave arcs for calm, dots for good fortune. None of it is explained on the jacket, and none of it needs to be. It reads as blue and white, and the rest is for people who know.

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.