Proper Cloth’s Washed Chambray Shirts Are Back and I’m Buying One

Today Proper Cloth is doing their roughly quarterly washed chambray and denim run once again. It lasts about a week. Prices are around $150-180. They have chambray fabrics as well as denim (chambray is looser and lighter than denim).

The way they present the shirts is somewhat confusing (to me anyway) because they show shirt styles pre-made in the fabrics, which makes it seem like those are your only options. But that is not the case—you can fully custom-design your own shirt style to be made in the fabric, which they will cut and sew before doing the washing process that gives it that beautiful, broken-in look this type of shirt is known for.

Chambray and denim shirts aren’t super difficult to find (J.Crew, SuitSupply, Spier & Mackay, AngloItalian, Drake’s, the list goes on, all make them), but I’m very picky when it comes to the design details. I really liked Anglo-Italian’s shirts in particular, but with the dollar-pound conversion rate, they come in over $200. Drake’s didn’t fit me too well. And the less expensive options usually have some design detail that bothers me.

I’m planning to get the Albiate heavy slub denim light wash as a popover with a Soft Roma Cutaway collar.

Basically I am chasing the ghost of the perfect light washed denim shirt Antonio Ciongoli designed for the Spring/Summer 2015 Ischia collection of Eidos. That shirt unfortunately was ruined in the manufacturing process (meaning the Italian factories who made it didn’t correctly account for shrinkage in the washing process, and so it came out wide and short in the body and sleeves). The Soft Roma Cutaway has identical measurements to Eidos’ Marcus sport shirt. And so it won’t be exactly the same, but it’ll be darn close.

Use this link for $20 off your order. And read my tips for making the most out of your Proper Cloth purchase here.

I also really like the contrast-thread light wash denim (which is similar to the Drake’s denim shirts), the linen-cotton chambray and the Japanese washed indigo chambray (which is probably the best choice if you want chambray instead of denim). Those links go to the pre-made shirt page, but to customize the design, just click “customize style” on those pages and you can specify everything such as collar, placket, cuffs, etc. as usual, in addition to your custom size.