Chocolate suede jacket with black leather trousers

Two in the morning and the only thing that is not black is brown. A chocolate suede jacket, collarless with a slim notched front, an asymmetric zip left open and a soft, unlined drape that creases at the elbow; under it a black ribbed scoop-neck tank, tucked into high-waist black leather trousers with a slim leg and a plain waistband. The boots are under the counter and nobody is checking.

This is leather as a day-to-night default: the suede softens the leather, the leather sharpens the suede, and the tank does nothing, which is its job. Jacket open, hair down, coffee in a thick mug. Autumn and winter nights that end in a diner, or a coffee that starts one. If it rains, the suede stays home and the trousers go alone.

Coffee at two. Messages answered by Thursday.