Off-White Striped Kimono Jacket 'Mansuji'

Off-white with a fine grey stripe, the old work-coat pattern in a pale key

Fine vertical stripes, shima, are the oldest everyday pattern in Japanese cloth: the stripe of indigo work coats and summer cottons, the one that never needed a motif. This jacket takes that stripe and turns it pale. An off-white ground, close to natural cotton in colour, with thin grey lines woven into it at close spacing, running straight down the front, the back and the sleeves.

Two flat buttons with a ring detail close the front at the chest, side by side, and there is a patch pocket at each hip with a small tab. The sleeves are wide and stop at the elbow. The hem sits at the hip. Buttoned, it is a short pale jacket with a quiet texture. Open, it hangs straight and the stripes make it look taller than it is.

The stripe is in the weave, not printed, so it has depth: from a distance the jacket reads as a soft grey-white, and only up close do the lines separate. The cloth is a polyester weave with a dry, slightly slubbed hand, chosen because pale cloth needs to stay pale after washing and because a light jacket should not crease into its stripe.

Over a white tee, everything goes tonal and the stripe is the only event, which is the cleanest version of this jacket. Over black, the contrast arrives and the pale jacket frames the dark tee like a border.

Wear it with white or cream trousers in summer, or with dark denim when you want the pale top half to stand out. It is the piece for someone who wants a kimono jacket in daylight, in a colour that looks right at noon, and it pairs with almost everything in a wardrobe that is not already white.

The name, Mansuji, means ten thousand lines, one grade finer than the thousand-line stripe, and the cloth lives up to it: the lines are close enough to disappear into a texture from three metres away and to reappear at one. It is a stripe you wear for yourself and for the person sitting next to you, not for the room. It also does the thing all good pale jackets do, which is to make whoever is wearing it look as if they are on holiday.

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.