Silver Storm Dragon Sukajan 'Shippu'

A silver dragon through silver clouds across the back, red or beige sleeves

Silver is the colour of this sukajan, whatever the sleeves are. The back is a dragon in silver-grey thread coiling through clouds embroidered in the same silver, so the whole panel reads as one storm with an animal in it, and the dragon's body continues onto both sleeves. On the chest, two smaller dragons face each other across the zip with clouds between them. The sleeves are red in the photograph, with the ribbing red-striped; the other version has them in beige.

It is the dragon sukajan with the least colour and the most thread, and the silver on black is the palette of the first jackets, when the embroidery was done in the metallic thread the sailors liked because it caught the light in a bar.

The name, Shippu, is a gale, the fast wind of the storm the dragon is riding, and the clouds are that wind embroidered.

Every motif is embroidered, not printed, in dense satin stitch that stands off the cloth and catches the light differently as you move; that is the whole point of a sukajan, and it is the reason the jacket weighs what it does. The body is a satin blend with a soft sheen and a light quilted lining, and the collar, cuffs and hem are a ribbed knit, which is the construction the sukajan has had since the first ones were sewn for American sailors in Yokosuka in the late forties. It zips at the front and has a slash pocket at each hip. It washes cold, inside out, on a gentle cycle, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, or over black for a jacket that is silver and one other colour. Nothing else with a pattern.

From across a street it is a black bomber with red or beige sleeves and a silver shape on the back. From close the dragon has every scale and the clouds every curl, all in one thread, and the sleeves show the body continuing. It is the sukajan for the person who wants a dragon and does not want a rainbow.

The sleeves are set in raglan, and the dragon on the back runs its body onto both, so the animal wraps the wearer. The red sleeves are a true red satin, the beige a warm sand, and the ribbing changes to match.

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