Midnight Dragon Haori Jacket 'Ginryu'

A silver-maned dragon coiling through steel-blue clouds, from the hem to the collar

The dragon takes the whole back and does not leave much for the clouds. It rises from waves at the hem, coils twice up the body in blue-grey scales with tan plates along its belly, and turns its head at the shoulder, mouth open, red tongue out, silver mane and whiskers streaming, horns back. Around it, clouds curl in steel blue on black, the flat spiral kind from old prints, and they continue over both sleeves and down both fronts, where the dragon's body reappears in coils as if it had gone round the wearer. Waves break in blue and white along the hem.

It is the darkest of the dragon jackets in tone, blue and black and silver with only the tongue in red, and that palette is what keeps it wearable. From a distance it reads as a textured dark jacket. It is only up close that the beast shows its teeth.

The name, Ginryu, means silver dragon, for the mane, the whiskers and the highlights along the scales, which are the only bright things on the print and the reason the animal reads in low light.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the scales drawn one by one and the clouds outlined in black so they keep their shape against the blue. The cloth is polyester with a smooth surface and a dry hand, chosen because a print this dense needs a ground that holds every line, and because a haori this dramatic should still weigh nothing. Three-quarter sleeves, open front with a flat band, no fastening, hem at the hip.

At three metres it is a black jacket with blue movement on it and something pale at the shoulder. At thirty centimetres the dragon has claws, whiskers, teeth and an expression, and the clouds have a hundred spirals. It rewards the second look more than most.

The cut is a short open haori, square at the shoulder and relaxed through the body. Over a white tee, the tee gives the blue-and-black print something to sit against and the coils on the fronts frame it. Over black, the jacket becomes one dark shape with a dragon moving through it, which is the way it looks best after dark. It goes with black trousers, dark denim, and nothing else with a pattern.

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.