Japan Tsunami Implications: Fabric Supplies
Like most of the world, we’ve been following the events in Japan with bated breath, hoping for the best in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy.
As Japan is a great source of quality cottons, it so happens we have a business interest there. One of our primary fabric suppliers, based in Osaka, has provided us several different fabrics at one point or another, and right now they are supplying our Purist and Coldwater shirts. Unfortunately their business operations were disrupted by the recent events, and as a result we’re unable to restock these fabrics.
We are of course looking into other options, as these two shirts are the staples of most men’s wardrobes. This supplier has provided us with some of the best quality fabrics we’ve seen yet – all are amazingly soft to the touch and vibrant in their colors – so we hope to continue doing business with them. Just as we hope to support the Japanese economy in any way we can. But until we are able to provide our customers with fabric options that are up to our standards, our Purist and Coldwater shirts will be on hold.
We’ll let you know us soon as they’re back (check us on Twitter for updates). Until then, let’s all keep hoping for the best in Japan.
UPDATE: We’re back – and so is our supplier. Our Purist and Coldwater shirts are officially back in our store.
The Tuxedo Shirt
Our newest offering is our first ever Tuxedo Shirt, one of the most important but least thought about items in a man’s closet. Yes, those black tie events may be rare, but when they do occur, the stakes are that much higher.
When wearing a tux, you probably won’t be removing your jacket as quickly as you would with a suit. But no matter how hard you hope to avoid the dancefloor, let’s face it – you WILL be dragged out there. And your jacket will come off.
We opted for subtle Mother of Pearl buttons and a regular collar, making the shirt simple, elegant, understated – the quality should speak for itself and not be overshadowed by too much shiny stuff. (Of course if you’d prefer a variation of the collar/buttons, we can probably do it for you).
Biased Cut Styling: The Firebird and Vivaldi
Our latest shirt offerings, which are just the beginning of many more to come in the next few weeks, were designed with the working professional in mind. Someone that needs to maintain that clean corporate image, but doesn’t want to settle for the simple solid whites and blues.
These shirts are interesting enough to wear on their own, but they can, and should, do more than that. Lean on them as a foundation for a bolder look to really differentiate yourself in office wear. To wit:
The v-neck (cashmere) sweater is one of the most versatile pieces in a man’s wardrobe. It adds so many possible combinations. And if you’d like to wear your shirt once more before cleaning it, the sweater will hide any early wrinkling. Plus it’s just plain comfortable.
A lightly patterned shirt like this can still go well with a pinstriped suit without being too busy, and then add the cardigan to really anchor it all down.
The Back Pleat
For the most part, we consider the craftsmanship of our shirts to fall within traditional sartorial guidelines. In other words, you won’t find much avant-garde experimentation in our designs. However, one unique aspect that our customers often have questions about is the full length box pleat. This isn’t the traditional center box pleat that most people are used to. Instead, ours continues down to the bottom of the shirt.
It’s certainly not the only way to have a pleat on the back of the shirt – there are several others. The difference between these, besides the aesthetics, mostly lies in the amount of extra give they provide when extending your arms forward.
- Traditional box pleat: Similar to the full length box pleat, yet it doesn’t run the length of the shirt (because it’s only sewn into the top of the shirt, it fades as it runs down).
- Inverted box pleat: Similar to the box pleat, but inside-out. It helps hide the appearance of the pleat while maintaining its usefulness.
- Side pleats: Instead of the one box pleat in the middle of the shirt, side pleats split each single pleat and spread them out to the shoulders. This allows a similar amount of give as the box pleat, but with a different appearance; however, it’s more difficult to include darts in the shirt.
- No pleats: Often, pleats just aren’t necessary. If the shirt is well fitting and/or includes darts, it may not need the flexibility that the pleats provide.
So, why do we choose the full length box pleat? While we pride ourselves on practical designs, this is a rare case of form before function for us. The full length pleat, in our eyes, has a slimming effect from the back, and also provides a touch of symmetry with the front placket. Because it’s sewn into the shirt all the way down, it doesn’t provide any of the give that the other pleats allow. But we’re confident that with our custom fits (aided by the side darts), this is unnecessary.
And while we personally wear our design proudly, we can’t claim to be the first to use the full length back pleat: Band of Outsiders and Ben Sherman have used it as well.
But of course, everyone has their own opinion, which we’re happy to accommodate. We know the full length box pleat isn’t for everyone (especially if you iron your own shirt), so just email us and we’ll adjust your shirt to your choice of pleat.
Biased Cut Gift Cards
We’ve finally launched our long-awaited Gift Cards!
Please email us for more information on purchasing.
Keeping our shirts wrinkle-free-free
There’s no denying it – guys love their wrinkle-free fabrics. What started as an ideal solution to an age old problem for any traveling businessman has made its way to the masses. No longer do guys have to spend time pressing, ironing, or steaming (or begging their significant others to do it for them). It’s a no-brainer, right?
Well, first it helps to understand what wrinkle-free fabrics actually are. Typically it’s just a standard cotton fabric combined with a “finishing agent” (I wish we could be explaining how wrinkle-free fabrics come from a new genetically modified, environmentally friendly, cost-effective cotton plant, but we’re not quite there yet). The “finishing agents” have evolved somewhat, but are mostly still the same chemicals that were used almost 20 years ago.
So why isn’t Biased Cut stocking these shirts? We have our reasons, and, at least for now, we’re sticking to them:
- The cotton fabrics used in wrinkle-free shirts are typically of lower quality than what you’ll find in our store, and as a result they don’t breathe as well, aren’t as soft, and don’t last as long.
- The “finishing agents” often include formaldehyde (yes, the embalming fluid), which can cause skin problems for some people. While the effects may be somewhat overstated, this recent NY Times article shows that the risks are still very real.
- The chemicals used can make it more difficult to remove dirt and stains from the shirts
- While claims for environmental concerns have been vague, we have yet to hear any evidence that they are safe either
Really, we’d love for more fabrics to be wrinkle-free. But until we’re convinced otherwise on the issues above, we are sticking with our high-quality 100% cotton shirts.
And if you really hate ironing…
Biased Cut’s Measuring Guide
The “Man-Purse”
I like my “man-purse” in a very particular way. A simple design with durable and high-quality material. Brown leather handles are a must. The following are some of my favorite briefcases and weekend bags. The prices range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, but they all serve the same purpose – practical everyday bags suitable for work and play.
Delvaux Newspaper Briefcase – $2,000
Swaine Adeney Brigg Business Holdall – $1,690
Biased Cut: Pulling back the curtains
This post has been a long time coming. For all of our devoted customers, and anyone that has been (or hopefully will be) interested in what Biased Cut is all about, we’d like to show a little bit of what’s behind the scenes.
Two months ago I made the trip out to visit my Biased Cut compatriots in Hong Kong, and recorded some of it along the way. Since the beginning, we’ve sourced and made all of our shirts in Hong Kong (though fabrics come from all over the world). The quality and craftsmanship available here are enough reasons to work with local tailors, but we feel that the value is what really makes it a no-brainer. And it’s certainly not some type of tortuous rural Chinese sweatshop – it’s a comfortable facility in a downtown high-rise.
Up on the 18th floor our master tailor works with each and every customer order, reviewing them on shirt pattern software. As exact as our measurement process is, you can rest assured that there is a true expert confirming shapes and sizes while massaging out any irregularities that may arise.
Once the go-ahead is given, the pattern is printed out.
The printer (or plotter) spits out a life size tracing of the shirt to guide the tailor in cutting the fabric.
Once the fabrics are cut, the seamstresses begin sewing it all together. Collars, cuffs, pleats, darts, buttons, and monograms – they’re all done here.
The shop, with its sweeping Hong Kong view.
From here, each shirt receives a quality control inspection before being sent out to the customer.
And that’s it! We’re extremely proud of the team in HK and the craftsmanship they bring to every shirt.
A vintage find with actual story
When we buy a vintage item on Etsy or from antique and thrift stores, we don’t usually know who it belonged to or from when it was used. So we’re left to our own imagination. But our imagination is just that: some fuzzy self-created fantasy conjured without specific facts. As much as we’d like to think that there’s a story behind our newest Etsy vintage find, be it a rusty pocket watch or a Western leather belt, they don’t come with words.
But yellowed postcards that were written on and postmarked, sent, received and read, offer an explanation. Like who the postcard was addressed to and where they lived, who wrote the postcard, where the postcard was sent from (the Piazza di San Marco). And a message. A personal message for someone who is not yourself. The interception of such a note, even one as simple as “Buon Giorno!” is enough to make one feel a bit… Sherlock Holmsey, for lack of a better term.
Then there’s the handwriting. For the typography-crazed, perhaps a minute’s peek at someone’s penmanship will yield a refreshing study. You see the inconsistency of his y’s, sometimes with a looped tail and sometimes without; the meticulously even spaces between words, as if he placed his forefinger between each one to measure. His spiky letters stick straight up like picket fences without a bit of slant to them. You can see exactly where he ran out of ink, and you wonder if that second, when he dipped his pen for more, allowed him to swat away a sweat bead.
With postcards that were actually written on, you get the historical facts, dates and names, that offer the limbs from which your own daydreams can stem. When you hold an ink-blotted and browned postcard in your hand, you know that it has travelled not only in time but across distances. And more than all of that, you know that someone had been important enough for somebody else to write to them. Mary had been on Giorgio’s mind when he was standing on the steps of the cathedral in Italy. And because Giorgio took the time to write to her, Mary isn’t just Giorgio’s somebody. She’s yours, too. You have her postcard, you have her name. Now you can make her story.
