Women's Black Sakura Kimono 'Yaezakura'

Double cherry blossom in pink on black, between white lace bands, tied in red

The cherry blossom on this kimono is the double kind, the heavy, many-petalled variety that flowers a week after the others, and it is drawn large, in pink shading to white, on a black ground. Between the flowers run vertical bands of a white lace-like pattern, fine and regular, so the print reads as blossom seen through a screen. The obi is red, wide, with a faint pattern woven into it, and it is the one saturated colour on the garment.

It is the boldest of the black florals in the women's range, because the flowers are large and the pink is bright, and the lace bands are what keep it from being simply pretty: they give the print a structure and a rhythm, vertical against the round of the blossom.

The name, Yaezakura, is that flower, the double cherry, the one that blooms late and lasts longer, and the one on the cloth is drawn with every extra petal.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the pink shaded from deep at the centre to white at the edge of each petal, and the lace bands kept fine. The cloth is polyester with a dry, matte hand, chosen because black must stay black around pink and white through washing, and because a kimono for warm days should hang light.

The obi is included, a wide red sash that wraps twice and ties at the back. Cross the fronts left over right, tie the obi, and the kimono closes into a long black column with the blossom scattered down it and the red band across the middle.

At three metres it is pink flowers on black with pale stripes. At thirty centimetres the stripes become lace, drawn in a fine repeating pattern, and each blossom shows its layers of petals. It is a print with a foreground and a background, and both are worth looking at.

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 an evening in April. Open over black, it is a robe that makes the flowers float.

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.