Cotton Plus

We were looking for a very specific fabric: 1) incredibly soft to the touch for all-day wear, 2) stretchy, breathable, and sweat-wicking, and 3) able to be dressed up or down for a variety of situations.

After reviewing over a hundred fabrics, we finally found this fabric, which we're now calling Cotton Plus.

• • Specs: Medium-light weight 65% cotton, 30% polyester, 5% spandex chambray.
  • Buttery Handfeel: By keeping the blend primarily cotton we get a superior handfeel that can only be achieved with a predominantly natural fiber blend. Seriously, it feels good.
  • Breathability: 65% cotton is enough to maintain most of the breathability of a natural fabric, preventing that overly technical "plastic shirt" feeling of tech-fabrics from companies that *cough* won't *cough cough* be named.
  • Quick-Dry: Cotton is absorbent and holds on to liquid, while polyester does not absorb liquid at all and only adsorbs (pulls fluid across it's surface). By adding polyester into the fabric blend, we have reduced it's overall propensity to hold onto fluids, making it more quick-drying than a pure cotton fabric.
  • Reduced Wrinkling: Cotton fibers are essentially tubes of crumpled cellulose, which is why 100% cotton fibers are extremely prone to wrinkling. Polyester fibers are functionally long cylinders of bendy plastic, so the presence of polyester in the blend reduces it's overall propensity to wrinkle and hold creases.
  • 4-Way Stretch: 5% Spandex in the blend is enough to give it a lot of flexibility which significantly increases the range of comfortable mobility.
  • Visual Texture: Chambray is a weave fabric with a dyed yarn for the warp and a white yarn for the weft. This creates a visual texture that contributes for the "flexible formality" of the shirt -- preventing it from looking too "dress-shirt-ey."

Details

• • Banded Collar: Collar is tapered to the front (frames the face more naturally), with a low front neck drop and and inward slant to the neck opening (i.e. it is actually a section of a slight cone rather than a cylinder). This helps assure that the collar falls sleekly against the neck.
  • Enhanced Mobility: Double wide plackets in the back allow for additional mobility in the arms while maintaining a slim cut, adding to the mobility allowed by the shoulder adjustments mentioned before.
  • Two-Option Cuff Plackets: Deep forearm plackets with two sets of buttons allow optionality in the armhole width when rolling up the sleeves. On an average arm, this means that it can naturally be rolled up either below or above the elbow (whatever the situation requires).
  • Shirt Length: The length of the shirt is designed to be equally comfortable tucked in or untucked (whatever the situation or user preference calls for)
  • Easy Care: It was important to us from the beginning to make sure this shirt was machine washable, because you're presumably looking for a shirt not a new pet top take care of. Hang-drying the shirt is ideal for optimal results, but, (if we're being honest here) throwing it in the dryer on tumble dry low isn't going to kill it either (might cause slight shrinkage).
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Sizing

Measurements are listed below, but here is a bit more of a common-sense explanation of how to think about sizing the BCS v2.0.

Our sizes run regular until they go through a warm wash / tumble dry cycle, in which they’ll come out on the slim side. If you want to keep it a regular fit, hang dry. If you want it a bit slim, run it through a warm or hot wash / tumble dry cycle.

If you’re not in between sizes:
Let’s say you’re almost always a medium. Get the medium. You’ll do great.

If you’re in between sizes:
Let’s say you’re on the bigger side of medium, then the large could probably fit you without being super boxy -- and bear in mind that, while we give a “hang dry” recommendation on the tag, running it through a dryer will shrink it a bit and won’t ruin it like a wool shirt or something (I’m a smallish medium and I actually prefer to run these through a dryer).

But, that’s just one option. If you’re on the bigger side of medium, and you get a medium, you’ll still probably be quite comfortable because our Cotton Plus fabric has a good helping of 4-way stretch.

This means an in-between-sizer actually has a bit more optionality on the fit. You can take the smaller size (the 4-way stretch has a lot of give) or the bigger size (it won’t be boxy “borrowed dad’s shirt” looking because it’s on the slimmer side of that size).

The choice is yours. Godspeed.