Kim Kitsuragi’s Disco Elysium Jacket By ZA/UM Atelier

A three photo collage of a burnt orange jacket from three angles. Two are against a concrete background with a white-haired model, the other is in a white walled room with a dark-brown-haired woman (the author).

Picture: ZA/UM Atelier / Kotaku

I have been concerned, for a pretty extended time, that Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi—your fellow detective in Disco Elysium, a sport which I love—was cold. Revachol is a severe, coastal city—one defined by high winds carrying winter in from off the h2o. It rains and snows usually, even in the quick seven times you shell out there in the video game. And I treatment deeply for Lieutenant Kitsuragi, who stands by your awful, drunken protagonist by way of thick and slender (unless you’re racist). But as nervous as I’ve felt about him all this time, my fears have now been sated, since my girlfriend bought me ZA/UM Atelier’s recreation of his Aerostatic Pilot Jacket and it is shockingly heat.

I’ll be fully sincere with you. On the entire, I fucking detest video clip video game apparel. Tons of people have stellar character styles with impeccable outfits, but these stellar fits almost never translate into the authentic globe. Most folks simply do not have the massive-dick electrical power expected to pull off these clothing. This simple fact is worsened by the affordable products utilised for most online video video game merch. We’re talking Halloween costume-top quality fabrics, unsuitable for usual human wear in the authentic planet, where by factors like rain and friction exist. Clothing that is merely video game-themed is also pretty poor. Look at these Cyberpunk 2077 sneakers, which I despise:

The god-awful Cyberpunk 2077 sneakers appear on a blindingly yellow background.

These glimpse like Skechers-branded child footwear from 2007, but devoid of the gentle strips. They would be better with light-weight strips.
Picture: Adidas

These sneakers are really corny, from the “CYBER” and “PUNK” composed on each aspect to the awkward shade-blocking through. They glance like they’re trying to be from the upcoming, but entirely lack cohesion or obvious practical style and design. They are my biggest enemy, and I say this as an individual who loves nonsense sneakers like the Trash Hippie 03s, Air Max 720 Horizons (the types with the rainbow Gore-Tex shell), and chunky-ass Balenciaga sneakers which I will under no circumstances be ready to afford to pay for. Instead of designing a cool shoe, or bringing a recognizable piece of in-match vogue into the serious entire world, Adidas made a mediocre shoe and then slapped some branding on it. It is very noticeable that it is a piece of video activity merch, and for that rationale it fills me with disdain.

It is for this specific very same rationale that I appreciate those people tailor made Pokémon shirts, created in collaboration with Unique Sew, the virtues of which I have previously espoused. They are unrecognizable as merch, and numerous are definitely reliable statement items that can promptly spice up an in any other case uninteresting outfit. They are enormously highly effective shirts, which I deeply respect.

Enter Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi—a veritable electronic drip-god who has a very equivalent style feeling to me, but greater. Take into consideration his substantial, boxy, burnt orange Aerostatic Pilot jacket, his previous but effectively cared-for white T-shirt, and his totally amazing brown cargo pants, which taper beneath the knee. His healthy is immaculate and useful, as he utilizes each one particular of his dozen pockets to their utmost outcome. I have stood in awe of him given that the working day he graced my screen, and fell in appreciate with his incredible vibes. Which is all to say that, in spite of my feelings all-around video sport merch, I have dreamed of proudly owning his jacket for the final two years. Now, thanks to my fantastic girlfriend, I do.

ZA/UM studio has made a smaller line of handmade Disco Elysium clothes. All of them are great, ranging from a exceptional “Death Cloak,” showcasing the game’s signature imagined cupboard, to Lieutenant Kitsuragi’s stellar cargo trousers. Nevertheless, the star of the collection is—without a doubt—Lieutenant Kitsuragi’s Aerostatic Pilot jacket. More than the training course of two operates, 85 of these jackets have been designed. The asking rate is a sizeable 399 Euros–this is most likely the final reward my girlfriend will ever get me–and they are now marketed out.

The outer shell is waxed, wind-resistant cotton. The interior lining is a shockingly warm pure cotton, set guiding a diamond-patterned dark blue cloth. It has four pockets, two concealed in the lining (where by Kim, and now I, hold our respective journals), and two a lot more about the ribs. The jacket is a little bit cropped, created to be worn with superior-waisted, useful pants. The jacket also will come with a one of a kind stat tag. It supplies me with +1 bonuses to hand-eye coordination and to Volta do mar, a Kim-specific ability never really observed in-match. In my screening, it is been tricky to notify if these stat boosts are working appropriately. Immediately following receiving the jacket in the mail I fell down the stairs of my apartment, which hasn’t happened since—so it’s possible it is operating.


The author of this piece produces an awkward smile, while giving a single thumbs up.

An awkward smile, like an earnest variation of The Expression. It is a single of deep pain.
Photo: Kotaku

ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY (Results, MEDIUM):

The neuro-receptors in your brain twitch, sending a series of electrical alerts to the muscle tissues in your cheeks. They writhe and pull back again, setting your encounter in an awkward grimace that resembles a smile. It is not great.


I live in New York City, which has a astonishingly identical local climate to the one depicted in Disco Elysium. It, like Revachol, is a metropolis just off the water—which usually means that it is often rainy, windy, and cold. The video game, which requires place at the edge of wintertime, is a fantastic healthy for the latest local weather of New York, so I made a decision to test the jacket’s efficacy at keeping me, and Lieutenant Kitsuragi by proxy, heat. I took to the streets of New York in sub-30 diploma weather, sporting the jacket, a black crop major, and a pair of black cargo pants and fight boots. This suit is, crop leading aside, extremely similar to Lieutenant Kitsuragi’s, and acts as a great check case.

For individuals of you who have never been to New York, the city’s most notable temperature element is its brutal wind chill, carried in from the neighboring ocean. When waiting around in line for my covid check just two weeks back, it brought about me to drop all emotion in my feet beneath my ankles. This was because of in element to my weak decision of sneakers, but I refuse to just take total duty for this predicament and pick out as an alternative to area some of the blame on God. The jacket’s waxed cotton shell is extremely productive at blocking the wind and, despite its cropping, managed to retain me heat even when totally unzipped, exposing my underdeveloped stomach muscles to the wind. The internal cotton lining was reliable, and stored my physique warmth exceptionally perfectly.

A model wears the burnt orange pilot jacket with a lace skirt and top, with knee-high burnt orange socks and black sneakers.

This photo looks like it was taken in an deserted industrial district, which is neat.
Image: ZA/UM Atelier / Kotaku

Probably the jacket’s ideal chilly-climate function is its pockets, which are sewn into the cotton lining. These pockets are warmed by their proximity to your entire body, and maintain the heat very well. This is in particular valuable for me, a woman with famously undesirable circulation that results in me serious irritation any time my palms and feet are uncovered to the chilly for any significant amount of money of time. They are powerful and legitimately do a substantially better occupation of retaining my palms warm than even my winter season coat, which just leaves them in icy, polyester prisons.

In addition to its utility, the depth function on the jacket is impeccable, cementing it as either a staple or statement piece in any wardrobe. For people of you who don’t often assume about your outfits, most suits are a combination of staple and statement items. Staple parts are your fundamental principles: monochrome trousers and shirts, black footwear, etc. These make up the majority of your wardrobe. These fundamentals are then complemented with a statement piece, which pulls the complete outfit together. Assertion items are what make it possible for your private type to seriously pop. Personally, I like to depend on sneakers and jackets for my assertion parts as they’re extremely functional as much as posts of clothing go, while I do appreciate a great graphic tee here and there.

A photo shows the jacket's back reflector panel, which depicts a map of Revachol's Jamrock District where the game takes place.

Regrettably, the reflectors do involve the worst lights on Earth to develop into obvious.
Photo: Kotaku

The Aerostatic Pilot Jacket is a magnificent burnt orange, which is lively ample to stand out as a assertion towards an all-black fit, but muted more than enough to act as a staple piece when blended with other, hotter-toned shades. Nevertheless, the jacket’s finest feature as a assertion piece comes from its reflectors, which, in-universe, are built to enable for air crews to find survivors from crashed aerostatics—even at evening.

The breast reflector bears the ZA/UM Studio symbol, the correct arm has the innovative RCM (Revachol Metropolis Militia) acronym, and the back again has an definitely gorgeous map of the Jamrock district of Revachol—where the video game can take area. These reflectors are exceptionally interesting to me, and make the jacket properly value having heart stage in any outfit. If you could not inform, I definitely like it.

Study Far more: A Yr Later on, I However Can not Prevent Considering About Disco Elysium

Kim’s Aerostatic Pilot Jacket is not only a superior piece of merch, but a stellar illustration of what good clothing can be. It is useful, trendy, and made outside the house of the quick-style nightmare manufacturing unit. It, with very good treatment, will very likely final for the rest of my life—like any piece of high quality outfits ought to.

I have cherished Disco Elysium, and Revachol, due to the fact the instant I first laid eyes on it. As corny as it appears, the recreation suggests a good deal to me, and having a physical piece of its world is genuinely actually interesting. And which is really the vital to all of this. For all of my dunking on negative online video sport manner, if you really hook up with a game’s world and want a piece of it, grabbing some garments you genuinely like–even if some rando on the net disapproves–is effectively really worth executing.

Kenneth Proto

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