Red Hakama Style Two-Piece 'Suou'

A pink kimono top with embroidered sleeves, over a long red hakama-style skirt

The hakama is the pleated skirt-trouser of the samurai and the archer, and this set takes its shape and leaves its rules. The top is pale pink, crossed left over right in the kimono cut with long sleeves, and down each sleeve white flowers and leaves are embroidered in a running vine. The skirt is long and red, deeply pleated from a wide waistband embroidered with a white flower at the centre, with two long ties that wrap and hang at the front the way a hakama's cords do. It falls to the ankle and moves like a hakama, in panels.

It is the most traditional-looking set in the collection and the most graceful in movement, because pleats this deep open and close as you walk, and red pleats do it in front of everyone.

The name, Suou, is the deep red of sappanwood dye, the red of court hakama a thousand years ago, and the skirt is that red.

The flowers are embroidered, not printed, on the sleeves and the waistband, in white thread with a satin-stitch finish. The cloth is a polyester-cotton blend, light in the top and firmer in the skirt so the pleats hold their edge. Both wash cold and hang, the skirt from the waistband so the pleats fall straight.

Wear the top tucked into the waistband with the ties wrapped and hanging, and white trainers, as in the photograph, or flat shoes for something more formal. It is the set for a graduation, which is what hakama are worn to in Japan, and for any day you want to walk like you are going to one.

From across a street it is pale pink over a long red skirt with two ties. From close the embroidery on the sleeves shows every leaf, the waistband shows its flower, and the pleats show their depth.

It goes with a white collar underneath and nothing else patterned. It is the set that most rewards being seen from behind, when the pleats swing.

The waistband of the skirt is wide and firm, so the ties wrap over it without folding it, and the pleats are stitched down for a hand's width below the band before they open, which is how a hakama's pleats are held. The sleeves of the top are long and straight, with the embroidery running from the shoulder to the cuff.

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