Walpole Men's black striped mao collar blazer-jacket from a Japanese wool-linen blend

The first encounter

Like the giant helmet that unexpectedly appears in the courtyard of the castle in Otranto, the gentleman's jacket manifests itself as an object between reality and imagination.

This black designer jacket with a stand-up collar is more than just clothing – it is the textile translation of the Gothic novel that Horace Walpole gave to the world in 1764, thus creating an entire genre.

The Japanese wool-linen mix, crisscrossed by monochrome vertical stripes in various shades of black—like the columns in Strawberry Hill, Walpole's neo-Gothic villa, stretching endlessly upwards.

These vertical lines are no random choice: they lengthen the silhouette, create gothic elegance, and transform the wearer into a walking church window. Each shade of black tells a different story—from the coal black of midnight to the anthracite of dusk.

The Materiality of the Uncanny

The exclusive fabric – monochrome stripes in black, each shade a separate chapter of darkness – envelops the wearer like the atmosphere of a ruined castle.

These vertical stripes are the architectural grammar of elegance, stretching and slimming, like the Gothic pointed arches that Walpole loved so much.

High-quality and unconventional, this luxury fabric combines the asceticism of a monk with the elegance of an 18th-century aristocrat.

Inside, a secret is revealed: mud-grey Japanese cotton, as refined and light as the morning mist over the Thames. This natural material on the skin is Walpole's "blend of the wonderful and the natural" – the wonderful and the natural in perfect symbiosis.

The side pockets and inside breast pockets become hidden chambers where secrets and fragments of thought are kept, like the hidden manuscripts in Walpole's library.

The Anatomy of Perfection – French Seams and Horn Mysteries

The French seams on the shoulders, sleeves, and side seams are like the invisible architecture of Walpole's prose—barely visible, yet they hold everything together. This couture technique, in which the seam allowances are tucked inward, creates a flawless surface, as smooth as the polished obsidian walls of Otranto's dungeons.

Every seam is doubled, hidden, perfected – like the double meanings in Walpole’s Gothic Tale.

The two horn buttons at the front are small works of art created by nature—each unique in its irregular black, white, and gray pattern, like petrified fragments from Walpole's nightmares. These organic patterns are reminiscent of the marbling of old gravestones, the cloud formations over Strawberry Hill on stormy nights.

On the inside, two counter buttons hold the jacket in perfect position – invisible guardians that ensure stability, like the hidden pillars of Gothic cathedrals.

The stand-up collar as a Gothic statement

The stand-up collar rises like the battlements of Otranto, stern and unyielding, yet with a subtle elegance that recalls Walpole's own description: "a beauty that strikes, but strikes with awe."

This collar isn't a fashion accessory, but a posture—the upright pose of one who walks between worlds, between day and night, between reason and fantasy. The vertical stripes continue here, leading the eye upward, to heaven or hell—depending on the perspective.

The Man in the Shadow and the Aesthetics of Ambiguity

Who wears this stand-up collar jacket?

He is the modern heir to Walpole's Manfred, Prince of Otranto. A man who understands the significance of the vertical line—it makes him taller, leaner, more present. The varying shades of black of the stripes play with the light, creating dimension and depth, like Walpole's multifaceted characters.

He appreciates the feel of the horn buttons, sometimes absentmindedly turning them between his fingers while pondering the paradoxes of modernity. He doesn't feel the French seams, but he knows they're there—that invisible perfection that only true connoisseurs can appreciate.

He writes at night—perhaps architecture books, perhaps philosophical essays, always with a fountain pen. In Viennese cafés, he discusses the "Gothic sensibility" in contemporary art, sips Japanese whiskey, and quotes Walpole's letters.

The monochrome stripes of his jacket merge into a single, mysterious silhouette in the semi-darkness.

The eternal night

The Walpole jacket is more than just an exclusive men's jacket with an unconventional cut. It is the embodiment of a philosophy Walpole established 260 years ago:that the sublime lies in the dark, that beauty and terror are siblings, that true originality lies in creating new worlds while walking among ancient ruins.

When you wear this jacket, you're not just wearing Japanese textile art and French couture craftsmanship. You're wearing the Gothic novel itself—mysterious, elegant, timeless.