Red wool blazer dress with a leather shoulder-strap belt

A blazer dress with the volume at the top. Red wool crepe, notch lapels, a wrapped double-breasted front with no visible buttons, a flap pocket at the hip and leg-of-mutton sleeves that puff from the shoulder and narrow to the wrist. The skirt wraps across to a front slit and ends just below the knee. Over all of it, a black leather shoulder-strap belt: two shoulder straps with buckles, an O-ring at the chest and a double wrap at the waist.

It is a dress for a window seat in a cafe at five in the afternoon, when it is already dark and the lamps are on. Wear it from coffee to dinner without changing anything; the strap belt is the belt, the jacket and the jewellery in one. Opaque black tights and an ankle boot when it is cold, no tights and a pointed pump when it is not. Small hoops, smartwatch, beads, and nothing at the neck.

I was waiting for someone. They were late. The dress was not.