Comme des Garçon Layered Organdy Jacket

The interlining is the design. A sheer cloth is transparent by definition, so putting a black interlining behind it does not produce a black jacket and it does not produce a white one: it produces a jacket whose color is manufactured by the distance between two layers. Where they lie flat against each other the black comes through strongly. Where the sheer lifts away, over a shoulder, along a lapel roll, at a cuff, the black recedes and the surface pales. The result is a garment that changes tone along its own construction lines, and it does it without a single seam being visible as a seam. The rest is orthodox tailoring, which is what makes the trick land. It is structured and single-breasted, which means it has a front, a closure, and a shoulder that behave the way a jacket's should, so the strangeness has something ordinary to happen to. The cloth itself is seventy percent nylon and thirty percent polyester, both continuous filaments, which is where the crispness and the standing-away quality come from: this is a sheer that holds an edge rather than one that falls.

A tailored jacket that changes color as it moves is not a thing we get offered often, and the fact that the mechanism is just an interlining is the part we like most.

Making a garment's most interesting quality out of something structural rather than something applied is close to the center of what the main line does, and this jacket is a clean demonstration of it.

Seventy percent nylon and thirty percent polyester, sheer, with a black interlining. Made in Japan. Structured, single-breasted. Color: black and white.

Structured and single-breasted, so it is sized like a jacket: at the shoulder first, then the chest. A crisp sheer holds away from the body rather than following it, which means the jacket keeps its own silhouette over almost anything, and it also means it will not disappear under a coat.

Over the Wide Pleated Trousers, where the jacket's structure against an enormous leg is the proportion to aim at. Over the Ruffle Chest Tank. With the Wide Crop Trouser for the lightest version.

Two filament synthetics and an interlining between them, which together mean this is a jacket to have cleaned rather than washed, and one to keep well away from a hot iron. Steam it at a distance if it needs reviving, and hang it on a shaped hanger so the shoulder keeps its structure. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Layered Organza Jacket is a white jacket in nylon, built as three separately buttoning layers rather than as one. There is more on the house on the Comme des Garçons designer page. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.