Shoes & Shirts - Blue Line Shirt Collection
We are very proud to announce that we have recently launched our new Blue Line shirt collection. After intense wear of our previous shirts and the feedback we have received from our most discerning customers, we believe that we were able to make significant improvements for our new shirts. This article will explain the changes we have made to our shirt collection to offer our customers the best value essentials that any wardrobe needs!
The quality of a shirt will always be determined, and sometimes limited, by the material used to make the shirt. For our shirts we have always used good quality cotton as this is the most versatile material due to the fact that it can be worn throughout the year. For our new shirts we have chosen to use Giza 45 Egyptian cotton which is used to weave some of the best shirting fabrics. The location where the cotton grows is of significance because the conditions in the Nile Delta, particularly the Nile wind and the stable climate during the cotton’s growth, cause longer and cleaner cotton fibres. These cotton plants can only be hand picked which also ensures that inferior cotton is not picked. While this process is a lot more laborious than that of other cottons, the longer fibres of Giza 45 cotton will result in noticeably higher quality fabrics. We source our fabrics from some of Italy’s most renown mills.
While the cotton is of utmost importance for the final quality of a shirt, it is important to recognize that many other factors contribute as well. One of the factors that will have a significant impact on the feel of the shirt would be the weave of the cloth. For our shirts we have chosen to use a fine oxford weave which is applicable to both formal and casual use. The oxford weave is often seen on the sportier oxford button down shirts (also referred to as oxford cloth button down shirts or abbreviated as the OCBD). While this rougher oxford cloth works well for more casual clothing, it is too casual to be worn with suits or more formal combinations. We believe that the finer weave chosen for our shirts gives stylistic freedom as it is equally fitting with a pair of cotton chinos and some boat shoes as it is with a formal suit and a pair of oxfords. To enhance the stylistic freedom, we have chosen for a ‘traveller’ cotton which is more resistant to creasing. The cotton used for our shirts is not to be confused with ‘non-iron’ cotton as our shirts are 100% cotton and do not contain any synthetics. The fibres of our traveller shirts were treated with an eco-friendly substance which combats the creasing of the shirt and which makes it easier to iron. The treatment of the fibres is one of the most significant but subtle changes we made to our shirts.
Our ideology behind the shirt collection is to provide our customers with high quality and versatile essentials. These shirts are like a blank canvas as they give you total freedom to wear them in your own style and with almost any colour. This is the reason why we believe that white and light blue shirts are the only shirts one truly needs! Admittedly, plain white and light-blue shirts may become slightly repetitive which is why we have added a stripe and a check. To offer more variation, we also have decided to add four ‘seasonal’ shirts which are better suited for colder weather, two of them are checked flannel shirts and two are checked cotton shirts woven in a slightly thicker twill weave. We have chosen three collar types for our shirts: the cutaway, the spread and the button-down (each collar has a smaller button which looks a lot more elegant). The cutaway collar and the button-down collar have remained the same as in our previous collection, the spread collar is a more contemporary replacement for our old Windsor collar. Our shirts come in a slim fit and a modern fit. The modern fit is a slightly more contemporary fit than our previously used regular fit, it is not slim but slightly less roomy than the regular fit.