Women's Peony Haori Jacket 'Hyakka'

A hundred flowers on a gold lattice, with white cranes flying through the peonies

There is a lattice under the flowers on this haori, a fine gold net drawn across the black ground, and it is the reason the print holds together. On top of it, flowers, everywhere: peonies in magenta and red, chrysanthemums in orange and pink, dahlias in blue, small yellow blooms, green leaves, all packed edge to edge across the fronts, the back and both sleeves. Through them, white cranes fly, one large across the upper back with its wings spread, others rising at the fronts and the sleeves, their crowns red. Almost no black shows.

It is the fullest floral in the range and the most colourful, and the lattice is what keeps it from being chaos. It gives every flower a grid to sit on, the way the gold thread in an old brocade did, so the jacket reads as woven rather than scattered.

The name, Hyakka, means a hundred flowers, the phrase for a garden in full bloom and for a crowd of talents all at once. The jacket has roughly that many, and a few cranes to keep them company.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the lattice printed as a warm gold line under the flowers and the white of the cranes kept bright. The cloth is polyester with a smooth surface and a dry hand, chosen because a print with this many colours needs a ground that keeps them apart, and because a haori this light should hang rather than stand. Three-quarter sleeves, open front with a flat band, no fastening, hem at the hip.

At three metres it is colour, warm and dense, with white birds moving through it. At thirty centimetres the lattice appears, every flower separates, and the cranes show their feathers. It is a print to be looked at twice, and it survives the second look.

The cut is a short open women's haori, square at the shoulder and relaxed through the body. Over a white tee, the white column and the white cranes rhyme and the front stays readable. Over black, the flowers float on the dark and the gold lattice catches the light. It goes with black trousers, white trousers, a plain dress, and plain shoes. Nothing else patterned, because there is no room.

Sizes run from M to 5XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.