Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Pleated Blazer

Pleating a tailored jacket is a contradiction, and knowing why is most of the pleasure of this garment. Tailoring works by building a smooth three-dimensional shell out of flat cloth using darts, seams, and pressing, and every one of those techniques exists to remove excess fabric invisibly. Pleating does the opposite: it adds fabric and it makes the excess the point. Doing both at once produces a jacket with a blazer’s architecture and a pleated surface running across it, so the silhouette is tailored and the skin of it is not. Polyester is what makes it possible rather than a compromise. A pleat is held by heat-setting the fiber, and a thermoplastic fiber takes a permanent set in a way wool never can: a wool pleat is pressed and will eventually relax, while a polyester pleat is part of the material’s memory and comes back after wearing, packing, and washing. Single-breasted, black, made in Japan.

Why we selected it

Pleated tailoring is easy to admire and hard to wear, and the reason this one is wearable is that the blazer underneath the pleating is a correct blazer. The shape carries the surface rather than the other way round.

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus builds the conventional garment first and intervenes second, which is the reason its most extreme pieces still hang like clothes.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent polyester, pleated throughout. Single-breasted. Made in Japan. Color: Black.

Fit notes

Pleated cloth has give in it that flat cloth does not, because the pleat can open, so a pleated jacket accommodates movement across the back in a way a smooth one does not. It also adds visible depth at every surface. Sized on the shoulder, as any jacket is.

Styling

Over the Homme LS Button-Up or the Homme SS Embroidered Button Down, both of which are flat enough to let the jacket be the only texture. With the Homme Elastic Waist Black Trouser or the Homme Plus Wool Trousers.

Care

Heat is what set these pleats and heat is what will destroy them. Do not iron this jacket, and do not let a cleaner press it flat. Wash cool if you wash it at all, and hang it to dry, which is when a heat-set pleat re-forms itself. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Homme Plus Back Zipper Blazer is a tailored blazer with a zipper down the back, and the Homme Black Snap Button Blazer is polyester with snap-fastened pockets. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.