Designer breaks down overshirt fabricsfrom @frontoffice.co

Transcript

Okay. That that's the sound you want. That's the sound. So we are designing overshirts. So an overshirt is in contrast to the undershirt, which is something like this, like Tier shirts, tanks. We have to think in terms of opportunities, and opportunities are to change the texture and the shape. So we'll start with texture. We could go in the direction of a more of a fuzzy, tactile, overshirt like this from Corridor. So I'm thinking about going the other way. Something that's a bit more smooth, sleek, but with a bit of shape to it. Kind of like an eighties, nineties Italian look to it. In terms of texture, similar to what this shirt, Jacob Elordi, is wearing. But what makes things smooth? The perception of smoothness is because the fabric is woven extremely consistently. So there are no bumps and valleys. So that it feels flat. So we can start to think about fabrics that are commonly used for business shirts, like, oxfords, poplains, broadcloths. The problem with those fabrics is although they're very smooth, they don't give us enough shape. So what gives things structure? And there are lots of different factors. But the main two factors are how tightly woven the fabric is and how thick it is. But this is an overshirt. We don't want a thick fabric. We want a fabric that's super smooth, really consistent, tightly woven, but we don't want it thick. Then we start to get into the realm of exotic fabrics that not many people make and are not commonly available. But that's okay. That's kind of what we do. So I had to go to Japan twice over the last nine months to figure out what sort of fabrics will work out. And I came home with two fabrics, both solving the same problem in different ways. This is the first one. Shirt number one, really smooth cotton, and that's woven into something called a typewriter cloth. And they call it typewriter cloth because it is similar to a typewriter ribbon, which is a component of a typewriter. It's probably an outdated reference now. So really smooth and ultra tightly woven and incredibly thin. And that dense weave gives us a lot of shape in the arms, a lot of shape in the body. I've put these really big pockets in because of an overshirt, so it's like that sort of in between, a shirt and a light jacket. I love this shirt. For where I live in Melbourne where the weather is temperate and temperamental, you're always throwing stuff like this on and off. Okay. Shirt number two. This fabric is way too expensive, and I shouldn't have bought it, but I did. The thing about this wool is that it is a wool denim. Wool it's wool woven into a denim weave, but has a really nice hand feel, really smooth, but also is because it's so densely woven, it gives us that structure in the arms, structure in the bad. Really wild fabric. Now wool denim is like wool denim is not a thing. Like, no one really makes this. You no, the Japanese rank. And the thing about these really thin, tightly woven fabrics is that whenever you put them on, they leave a very satisfying sound to it. And that combination of a tightly woven fabric as well as the density of the fabric traps that pocket of air and creates that sand and lets me know that I've done the right job and I found the right fabric. Details.