White Peony Kimono 'Shion'

Lilac peonies on white, drawn soft, with a burgundy sash crinkled at the waist

The peonies on this kimono are drawn the way a watercolourist draws them: soft-edged, shaded from lilac to deep purple inside each flower, with grey-green leaves and a gold centre, scattered in loose clusters across a white ground from the collar to the hem. There is air between the flowers. The white shows. The obi is burgundy, wide and crinkled, and it is the one saturated colour on the garment, a deep note under a light one.

It is the gentlest floral in the women's range and the most painterly, because nothing on it is outlined. The flowers bleed a little at the edges, the way real ones do in the rain, and the effect is of a garden seen through a window rather than a pattern.

The name, Shion, is the aster, the small lilac flower of the Japanese autumn, and the traditional name for this exact shade of purple, a colour worn by the old court for its calm.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the shading kept soft on purpose and the white kept clean around it. The cloth is polyester with a dry, matte hand, chosen because a white this white must stay white through washing and a lilac this pale must not fade, and because a kimono for warm days should hang light.

The obi is included, a wide burgundy sash with a crinkled texture that wraps twice and ties at the back. Cross the fronts left over right, tie the obi, and the kimono closes into a long white column with the flowers drifting down it and the burgundy band across the middle.

At three metres it is a white kimono with soft purple on it. At thirty centimetres each peony shows its shading, petal over petal, and the leaves show their grey-green. It is a print that looks painted, and it was drawn to.

The cut is long, falling to the ankle, with wide sleeves and a wrap front that adjusts at the waist. Tied, it is a dress for a summer afternoon that wants to look calm. Open over white, it is the softest robe in the house.

It comes in one size, cut long with a generous wrap. It is Asian sizing and runs small, so it sits closer than a Western one-size; the wrap and the obi give the room, and set the waist where you want it.