ONCE A DAY
GARMENT STORIES
The Cotton overshirt
A jacket for the coffee in the morning and whatever comes after. The chore jacket, unchanged for a century. Cotton, linen, and the argument for wearing the same thing everywhere.
A jacket for the coffee in the morning and whatever comes after.
It started on a factory floor in 19th century France. Cotton twill. Two patch pockets. A plain button front. A laborer needed something that could take a beating and stay out of the way.
The chore jacket has barely changed since. That is the point.
Bill Cunningham spent forty years photographing New York from a bicycle. Two columns in the Times. On the Street – sidewalk portraits. Evening Hours – galas, openings. He wore the same jacket to both.
Staying with you through thick and thin, just like a good friend
Photograph: First Thought Films, 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York.
THE SUMMER ARGUMENT
In any city where the summer is serious – and the air conditioning more serious still – the overshirt earns its place differently.
You step outside into the heat. You walk into a restaurant and the temperature drops fifteen degrees. You need a layer that lives over your arm until you sit down. Not outerwear. Not a shirt. The garment that makes the move between street and room effortless.
THE COTTON OVERSHIRT
100% Cotton. 210g. Albini, Bergamo, since 1876.
" Nothing added for effect"
COTTON
The cotton overshirt is the closest to where this all began.
Ours is made from 100% cotton woven at Albini, a mill outside Bergamo producing fine cloth since 1876. The fabric arrives with structure – a clean, honest weight. It holds its shape on the first wear and softens gradually into something more personal. Six months in, it is a different garment.
Five-button plain placket. Two square hip patch pockets. Horn buttons. Buttoned square cuffs. Nothing added for effect.
Wear it over a t-shirt on a Tuesday morning. Over a white shirt and a tie when the evening asks.
Navy, because that is what this shape has always been.
The Look: The Navy Cotton overshirt, worn here with the linen silk tie in brown. An overshirt by temperament. Works with a tiewhen the occation requiers it.
