Woman in a black wool blazer with open split leather-lined sleeves and an olive pleated satin skirt on a rooftop at sunset

Dark tailoring · Autumn · Winter

Split-sleeve black blazer with olive pleated draped skirt

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Sleeves open shoulder to cuff. Easier than rolling them. A black wool blazer, leather-lined, split down both arms, over an olive satin skirt pleated and gathered off to one hip. Taupe lug-sole boots, flat. A heel with this would be a cry for help. Late afternoon, nothing over the blazer.

A black wool blazer with leather-lined sleeves slit open from shoulder to cuff, over an olive satin skirt pleated and gathered off-centre, with taupe lug boots.

The blazer is black wool, double-breasted with peaked lapels faced in leather, fitted through the waist and cut to an asymmetric hem that drops lower on one side. The sleeves are the point: split open along the outer arm from shoulder to hem, lined in black leather, so they hang like two stiff half-capes with the arms passing through the opening. The skirt is olive satin, knife-pleated and gathered into a twist at one hip, from which the pleats fan out to an uneven midi hem. Taupe rubber-soled boots with a heavy moulded tread finish it at the ground.

An autumn and winter outfit for a rooftop, an opening, a dinner that begins after dark. The sleeves are a coat in themselves, so nothing goes over it. The boots keep it from becoming a gown; a heel would make it one, and then the sleeves would look like a costume. Olive against black is the only colour it needs.

The sleeves are open because the arms had somewhere to be.