Twin Dragon Peony Sukajan 'Ryubotan'

Two grey dragons round the shoulders and a third across the back, with gold peonies

Three dragons share this sukajan. Two coil over the shoulders and down the chest, grey and silver with red tongues, their bodies running onto the red satin sleeves. The third fills the back, larger, head turned, over a bed of gold and cream peonies embroidered so dense they read as a second cloth. Red sleeves, black body, and the ribbing striped red and black to match.

It is the most classical of the dragon sukajan, because dragon and peony is the pairing of the tattoo tradition the jacket borrowed from, and the grey-on-black-and-red palette is the one the first Yokosuka jackets were sewn in.

The name, Ryubotan, is dragon and peony, the two things on the back, and the name says what it is.

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 to make the red sleeves the only colour. Nothing else with a pattern.

From across a street it is a black-and-red bomber with grey coils on it. From close the dragons have every scale and whisker, the peonies every petal, and the red sleeves show the dragons continuing down them. It is the sukajan for the person who knows why a dragon needs a flower.

The sleeves are set in raglan, and the dragons on the chest are placed so their bodies cross the seam onto the red satin without a break, which is the hardest thing to do with embroidery on a bomber and the thing the good ones get right. Zipped, the two chest dragons meet at the collar.

Sizes run from M 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.