Oxford’s your first choice

The Button-Down Oxford takes us back to the easy cool of the ‘50s US college campus. Happy Days you might say.

And indeed, the Button-Down can be as carefree as The Fonz and as tucked-in as Richie Cunningham. So whether you need to look credible for that Zoom meeting that just forgot about or just kick back on a lazy Sunday the Button-Down’s got you covered.

We got busy and here’s what happened.

So how do you do it? Well, you simply grab a pair of trousers or shorts and put on a Button-Down. 100% of the time, it works every time.

The Button-Down Oxford’s got a reputation for being hard-wearing and we certainly wanted to honour that. The shirt’s popularity comes from the Oxford fabric’s basket weave, where equal numbers of threads are crossed over each other to create this distinctive texture. Get the fabric right and you’re halfway there.

A cotton shirt will hold up much better in the wash than a synthetic fabric. So we went for a 100% organic cotton from Turkey, known for its breathability and to soften nicely with age.

We prepped to bring out a Button-Down Oxford Shirt a few years ago but we almost had to give up our shirt looking for a good fabric, with one supplier refusing to sell to us because they felt our selling price was too low.

One of the many frustrating things about the industry is that some suppliers try to control pricing to lock up the market.

Our objective is to get as many people as possible into durable quality clothing at reasonable prices. It’s one thing for our customers to support our sustainable model, but it can be a real challenge to convince suppliers of the benefits of changing the fashion status quo.

But things change and in the end we found our folk, including an unbelievably experienced mill just a few hours away.

The farsighted supplier in question is Emanuel Lang, weavers in the East of France who’ve been going for more than 160 years (get our Manufac’tour here). The company survived many industrial crises, a few world wars and have fought off global competition thanks to their extensive knowledge of natural fabrics and continuous investment in R&D. For example, they are the first French weavers to invest in local French linen production for 30 years.

Each thread woven 2 by 2 gives the fabric its distinctive “basket weave” which is hard-wearing and doesn’t crease as much as others.

The resulting fabric weighs 150g/m2 which is enough to keep you warm while staying breathable and a good all year round choice.

We took our Button-Down for the usual lab test. 4.5/5 for pilling and 4.5/5 on the rub test, which is a very good score. All the more reasons to stay relaxed in your Button-Down, as you’ll be able to wear it for years to come.

To make sure we scored a home run, we worked with a pattern-maker to balance out every part of the shirt so that it drapes well and is easy to wear.

The shoulder length is comfortable without being baggy, and the fit’s tailored without being “fitted” so you can kick back in the afternoon in comfort

The shirt’s cut long so if you tuck it in it doesn’t pop out every time you get up. But not so long that you feel like you’re tucking in a table cloth.

However we’ve given you enough room around the chest so that your movement isn’t restricted. Lastly, we walked on the wild side and did away with the pleat in the back, to imitate the bad guy in our shirt range, the Raw Denim Shirt, which as it happens was your favourite cut. Mission complete without a pleat.

The shirt’s extended life expectancy is also down to the high stitch count, with history teaching us that 7, as in 7 stitches/cm, is the golden number to minimize tearing.

It’s also the length of our round tip collar - 7cm - which has a light 100g/m2 fusing, the same one used on the cuffs, so they both hold well without feeling stiff.

Sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists amongst you, but this is a coincidence. As far as we know there is no secret brotherhood of 7 but if people start giving you funny handshakes get in touch.

The 2mm-thick buttons are cross-stitched and made out of mother of pearl. We tested a few to make sure we hit a double bull’s eye of durability and comfort. You need something solid if you ever want to wear it open.

We produce most of our shirts (and jerseys for that matter) in Portugal, as we strive to reduce our carbon footprint. It also makes it easier for our team to visit our production partners regularly and see how we can improve our collaboration and the clothes we make.

We stuck with the classic colours this time with one newcomer to jazz things up a bit:

You can’t go wrong with the plain white, never out of place.

The light blue ditto.

The classic Button-Down Oxford with a thin blue stripe.

Another classic pattern, this time blue gingham.

It’s also a good tip if you want to keep your shirts longer as tight shirts tend to wear out more quickly. You’ll soon get used to the comfort of that extra room.

The Button-Down Oxford is available for preorder from Tuesday 23rd March for 69€. We hope you’ll enjoy so much quality and style at such an affordable price.

Preorders are open for 6 days only, so make sure you get in early if you already know what colour you want, as we’ve only lined up limited amounts of fabric in each colour. You can sign up here and be notified first when it opens and get a look at the size guide and our extra sizes.

For the early birds, your Button-Down Oxford will make its way to you around the beginning of June (that's anytime between the 1st and the 10th of the month). In the last few days, you can expect it around mid-June (that's between the 11th and 20th).

If you have any questions, you have the comment section below or you can visit our international Instagram page for more insights.

Button up,

The Asphalte Team