Olive Embroidered Vest and Espresso Trouser

An accountant who travels between Lagos and Abuja three weeks of every four asked me to build her something she could pack in a carry on and wear three different ways. The brief was simple: do not crease, do not need ironing, do not fall apart at the airport.

The vest is olive twill, hand embroidered at the closure with a soft scroll she would not see unless she looked, the kind of detail you build for the woman, not for the photograph. It is lined in cotton voile so it sits clean against skin in Lagos heat and against a thermal in an Abuja boardroom in harmattan. The trousers are espresso wide leg, the colour you do not have to fuss with at four in the morning at the airport because it forgives everything.

She wears this with a white blouse on flights, bare with heels at meetings, and with a navy long sleeve underneath at dinners that run late. The vest has been in her travel rotation for fourteen months. She reordered the trouser in charcoal at month nine.