Nicholas Daley DO-GI Pant – Beige

A dogi is the training uniform worn in Japanese martial arts, and its trouser is one of the most purely functional garments ever standardised: cut wide enough to kick in, reinforced where a knee hits the mat, and fastened with a tie rather than with any hardware that could injure the wearer or a partner. Daley has an established interest in this. His spring 2021 collection, built around Peter Tosh, was concerned specifically with the meeting of reggae and martial arts in the 1970s, and Tosh himself held a black belt in karate. That is not a decorative connection, and it is not one anybody else was making.

The trouser here takes the dogi’s belt fastening and its ease and puts them into a garment you could wear to lunch. Contrasting panels break the leg into sections, which is a Daley habit borrowed from workwear, and the body is a cotton and linen blend against a contrast carrying ramie. Nothing about it is a costume version of the original. It is the original’s logic applied to ordinary clothes.

Why we selected it

We took this because the tie waist is genuinely more comfortable than a fly and a button and nobody makes it in a trouser you can wear outside a dojo. It is also the clearest single garment he makes for explaining how his Japanese and Caribbean references sit in the same sentence.

The martial arts thread in Nicholas Daley’s work runs back to his Stepping Razor collection and is one of the few places where Japanese and Jamaican material culture meet directly in menswear.

Materials and construction

The body is eighty-four percent cotton and sixteen percent linen. The contrast is eighty-five percent cotton, eight percent ramie, and seven percent linen. Made in Japan. Belt-style tie closure at the waist, contrasting panels, relaxed leg. Colour: Beige.

Ramie is a bast fibre from a nettle relative, closely related to linen in behaviour: strong, crisp, and cool against the skin, with even less give.

Fit notes

Relaxed throughout and fastened by a tie, so the waist adjusts within a wide range rather than fixing at one measurement. This is a forgiving trouser, about as far from size-critical as a trouser gets. The linen and ramie content means it will crease at the knee and hip and relax across a day.

Styling

With a plain tee and a sandal in summer, which is nearly the original context. With the Utility Waistcoat over a shirt for something more deliberate. The panelling is the detail, so keep the top plain.

Care

Wash cool and gently, and dry flat or on a line away from heat. Cotton, linen, and ramie together crease readily and press well, so a light press on the reverse is worthwhile if you want the panels to sit sharply. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The DO-GI Pant in navy is the same trouser in the quieter colour. The Stepping Razor T-Shirt and the Lavenham Sashiko Jacket come from the same collection project, and the Utility Waistcoat in mustard and yellow check is the layer over it. There is more on the house on the Nicholas Daley designer page. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.