Traditional Men's Yukata 'Asanoha'

A fine hemp-leaf lattice on black, with bands of blue pattern running down it

Look closely at the black on this yukata and it is a net. A fine hemp-leaf lattice, the six-pointed star pattern that Japanese cloth has used since the Edo period, covers the whole ground in a black a shade lighter than the black around it, so it reads as texture from a distance and as geometry up close. Down the body and the sleeves run narrow vertical bands of a small blue pattern, spaced wide, like stripes made of embroidery. The obi is grey-blue, wide and flat.

It is the most traditional piece in the men's range and the most quietly detailed, because both patterns on it are old ones and neither is shown off. The lattice was the pattern sewn on babies' clothes for strength, the hemp plant growing straight and fast. The bands are the stripe of the townsman. Together they are a yukata that a man in the old capital would have recognised.

The name, Asanoha, is the hemp leaf, the lattice itself, the most-used geometric pattern in the country and the one every Japanese person can draw from memory.

It is printed, not woven, with the lattice kept only a shade off the ground and the blue bands kept sharp. The cloth is polyester with a dry hand and a slight texture, chosen because two blacks this close must stay distinct through washing, and because a yukata for the warm months should hang light.

The obi is included. Cross the fronts left over right, wrap the grey-blue obi twice at the waist and knot it at the hip. The obi picks up the blue of the bands and reads as one more.

At three metres it is a black robe with thin blue stripes. At thirty centimetres the lattice appears across the whole cloth, star after star, and the bands separate into their small repeating pattern. It is the yukata in the collection with the most going on and the least showing, and that is the tradition it comes from.

The cut is long, falling to the ankle, with wide square sleeves and the room to walk. Worn at home it is a robe with a pattern you find by touch. Worn out with black sandals it is a summer outfit that reads correct from the street and detailed from the table.

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