“Those are some fun shirts.â€
During a visit to one of his company’s shirt factories in the seventies Ash Wall, the vice president and great-great-great-grandson of Brooks Brothers founder Henry Sand Brooks, picked up a discarded “practice†sport shirt off the assembly line and tossed it on. As he did so, he uttered the above statement in reference to the ten or so different fabric scraps that had been haphazardly stitched together to form this button-up.
As the story goes, the workers at the factory tried to discourage Wall from wearing the shirt because to them these garments were not fit for wear, they were imperfect practice pieces that were assembled by the inexperienced stitchers. But Wall was hearing none of this, he was already entranced by the shirt’s one of a kind patterning and offbeat aesthetic. At the behest of Wall, BB began selling the patchwork tops and “fun shirts†became a popular piece throughout the preppy seventies and eighties. Unfortunately, Brooks no longer make these unconventional oxfords and so if you are in the market for a bizarre button-down, we recommend you turn to Mark McNairy. He seems to be having all the fun these days.
Polo has done a diff version about every season the past few years, from a fun tartan oxford to pastel oxford, and vineyard vines always has them.
Forgot to say- if you want to see one in action- my brother, Eric, wears a Brooks super slim one in heavy rotation- he works at Kate’s fish at the West Side Market.
No love for Shite Shirts? Half serious.
Yo Theo, is that a Gordon Gartrell?
Brooks still makes fun shirts: http://www.brooksbrothers.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-brooksbrothers-Site/default/Search-Show?q=fun%20shirt
Full photos of the first shirt: http://getticketsforthedance.tumblr.com/post/91316540961/summer-fun
Great stuff all around!
Those shirts are NOT fun and they’re uglier than Michelle Obama.
These shirts scream “look at me I’m so wacky”. I honestly thought you were doing a review of Shite shirts when I saw the first photo. Good for a bit of fun, wearing for a dare on stag-dos, etc. My father in law is a big fan. I’d rather spend my cash on something that looks good though.
Your are ruining Mike’s website with your posts.