Cotton shirting fabrics all have their pros and cons. Broadcloth? Smooth, clean, and a little too business-y for jeans. Oxford cloth? Rumpled, comfortable, and a little warm-wearing in the summer. Chambray? Sporty, carefree and a bit coal miner-y. Twill? Soft, but like avocados, not everybody loves that texture.
My favorite thing to do is get shirts in any of those weaves, but with a minority blend of linen in the weave. Do that, and you’ve instantly added some interest and texture to your fit. For instance, Oxford cloth in cotton-linen shirt irons up just fine, looks great with a tie dressed up just like a normal Oxford shirt, but breathes a little better when it’s warm out. (Scope the featured photo at the top to see mine in action with a winter-weather outfit).
Or a plain-weave cotton-linen (chambray and broadcloth are both plain weaves, with the former typically being more loosely woven and usually associated with indigo): irons up and serves as an excellent backdrop for almost any business-appropriate environment, but the linen subtly adds texture and makes it work well with jeans.
I’ve long advocated for cotton-linen trousers in the summer, but with cotton-linen shirts, I wear them year-round. Since it’s going under a layer of some kind in the cold months—a sportcoat, sweater or some type of outerwear—it’s not as if it’ll wear colder. And the added texture of linen looks great all the time.
Proper Cloth usually has a decent selection of cotton-linen fabrics. My go-to is their light blue Oxford (out of stock currently but it gets restocked regularly; also available in white). Check out all of Proper Cloth’s cotton-linen fabrics here. (Use this link for $20 off your first order).
Kamakura stocks cotton-linen shirts too, often in their sporty models like this one-piece collar “Sciolto” shirt model.
Ratio custom clothing, whose custom shirts I reviewed a couple years ago, also stocks cotton-linen fabrics. Theirs include some more business appropriate fabrics like this poplin but also colorful casual options like this Taos sunset stripe fabric.
Spier & Mackay’s cotton linen options are only off the rack presently, but I think they have some coming as options in their custom shirt program soon. This blue pinstripe and this small gingham are the only two for sale currently.
No Man Walks Alone carries G. Inglese, a handmade Italian shirt maker, and typically stocks a cotton-linen shirt or two. There are more dressy options like this light blue spread collar, or this blue stripe spread collar, as well as more fun ones like this horizontal stripe single-piece collar knit polo shirt.
Suitsupply also stocks cotton-linen shirts, which you can find by filtering by “linen” shirts and finding the few available amongst the pure linen options. Currently they have a light blue shirt, a white shirt both in extra slim fit, and a green wide-stripe that’s made-to-order.
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Where did you get the tie in the top picture?
It’s an ancient madder tie from Brooks Brothers several years ago. The shops I always peruse for ancient madder are Chipp, HN White, Budd Shirts, E.G. Cappelli, J.Press and O’Connell’s. So, if you’re looking for one similar, scope out those places.