Red Dragon Japanese Bomber 'Sekiryu'

A silver dragon through red waves across the back of a black flight jacket

The waves on this bomber are red. A silver dragon coils across the back through water embroidered in dark red with white foam at the crests, and on the right chest a smaller swirl of the same red water breaks over the zip. The jacket is a flight jacket: matte black nylon, black ribbing, a metal zip, a zipped pocket on the left sleeve, and nothing else on it.

It is the dragon bomber with the strangest palette and the best one, because red water is not a thing and the jacket makes it one.

The name, Sekiryu, is the red dragon, though the dragon is silver and the water is red, which is the joke.

The dragon and the waves are embroidered, not printed, in satin stitch with the silver kept bright. The body is a matte nylon blend with a light quilted lining, the cloth of a flight jacket rather than a souvenir one, with ribbed knit at the collar, cuffs and hem, a metal zip, a slash pocket at each hip and a zipped pocket on the left sleeve. It washes cold, inside out, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over black with black jeans. It goes with red, with grey, and with nothing else that has a pattern.

From across a street it is a black bomber with a pale animal in dark red on the back. From close the dragon has every scale in silver, the waves every curl in red, and the foam its white. It is the sukajan for someone who wants a bomber that is black from the front and something else from behind.

A flight jacket differs from a satin sukajan in the cloth and the collar: the nylon is matte and takes the weather, and the ribbing is plain and closes at the neck. It is cut a little slimmer, so a knit goes under it in the cold.

The waves on the chest and the waves on the back are the same water in the same red, so the jacket reads as one sea with a dragon in the back of it, and the chest swirl is the crest of the wave that has come round the front. The ribbing is plain black, and nothing on the jacket is a fourth colour.

Sizes run from S to 3XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.