Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Ruffle Jacket

A ruffle is a length of cloth gathered along one edge, and everything about how a ruffle looks comes from what the cloth does with the gathering. In a soft fabric it collapses into a series of small soft falls, which is why ruffles read as romantic and read as historical. In a nylon with body and a shine on it, the gathers stand instead of falling: each one holds an open curve, catches light along its edge, and the whole surface reads as something built rather than something draped. That is the object here, and it explains why the ruffle on this jacket does not look like a ruffle on anything else. Texture is doing the other half of the work, because a textured nylon breaks the shine into points rather than sheets, so a black jacket covered in gathered cloth stays legible instead of turning into a black mass. One hundred percent nylon, black, made in Japan.

Why we selected it

The ruffle has been softened and sold back to everybody for a decade now. This is the version that refuses to be soft, and it is the only one we have seen that is genuinely about the cloth rather than about the reference.

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus regularly takes a form loaded with associations and rebuilds it in a material that will not carry them.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent nylon, textured and with a shine. Ruffled. Made in Japan. Color: Black.

Fit notes

Gathered cloth adds volume wherever it sits and a nylon that holds a curve adds more, so this stands away from the body at every ruffled point regardless of the size. It is the sort of jacket that is sized on the shoulder and worn open. Nylon has no give, so nothing about it will relax to accommodate.

Styling

Over something entirely plain, which on this line means the Homme Plus Wool Trousers or the Homme Elastic Waist Black Trouser and nothing else competing. It does not want a print and it does not want a second texture.

Care

Nylon melts at temperatures a domestic iron reaches, and a ruffle cannot be pressed back into shape once it has been flattened, so nothing hot goes near this. Have it cleaned by someone told about the gathering. Store it hanging with room around it, since crushing a ruffle in a full closet is what ruins one. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Homme Plus Long Tulle Jacket is polyester in a double layer of tulle, and the Junya Watanabe Leather Patchwork Jacket is leather pieced in panels. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.