The Ideal Shirt
Material: Denim
- The ultimate casual cut, neither too loose or too fitted.
- Available in Oxford cotton or denim
- Perfected with 6 years’ worth of feedback
Material: Denim
The Ultimate Button-Down?
Finely tuned for the everyday
What’s Not Ideal? What you didn’t like about your other casual shirts.
1
Flimsy fabric
2
Poor shape
3
Creased like crazy
4
Buttons did a runner
The Ideal Ingredients
CUT TO PERFECTION
It took us six years to perfect this shirt. Six years of questionnaires and testing, trials and refinements. It was a long journey, but it was worth it: not too baggy, not too tight, we reckon our Ideal Shirt fits just right. Its carefully refined shape is classic without being stuffy. Smart enough to mix it with a jacket and brogues, but unfussy enough to look the part with jeans and trainers - it’s the shirt for any occasion, any time of year.
ONE SHIRT, SIX FLAVOURS
Made from either Oxford cotton or a mid-weight denim, the Ideal Shirt’s available in six tasteful, understated hues and finishes. The Oxford version comes in white, sky blue, blue and white stripes, green and white stripes, and grey. As for the denim option, that one’s available in stone.
THE OXFORD DON
Oxford cloth is a cotton fabric that uses multiple weft threads, crossed over an equal number of warp threads. Translation? Well, all of that means it’s tough, with a slightly textured, fresh feel. Characterful, classic, easygoing.
DENIM: A RECAP
You are probably pretty familiar with the attributes of denim, but to be safe let’s recap... It’s a woven twill fabric that’s ultra-durable and full of character. This denim was made by the wizzes at Nomura, in Japan. It’s a nice middle-weight fabric, meaning it’s worked its lead-character magic year-round.
THUMBS UP FOR THIS BUTTON DOWN
We’ve added a lining to our button-down collar to make sure it stays put and keeps its shape, wear after wear. On top of that, we employed some serious collar calculus to design perfectly proportioned collar tips, long enough to accommodate a tie — should you feel the need — without looking droopy in chill-out mode. After all, casual shouldn’t mean scruffy.
A SHORT STORY
Vintage button-downs and dress shirts were designed to be tucked in, meaning they’re often really, really, really long. We kept ours shorter so it works just as well tucked or not. Put down that candle holder… this isn’t Scrooge’s nightgown.
FULLY FUNCTIONAL
The Ideal Shirt comes with a chest pocket as standard — perfect for holding a pair of shaders, or a few of those little clicky pencils that make you look like an architect (even if you only ever use them to draw Simpson’s characters while you’re on the phone). We didn’t cut corners on the other details, we picked out some boss bio-based buttons and rounded off the cuffs to up that nice relaxed feel.
MADE IN PORTUGAL
We got the highly-skilled shirt-smiths at Vermis, in Portugal, to put this dream button-down together. You’ve probably heard us mention them before, they make a lot of our shirts. This one’s tried and trusted, from the cut to the producers.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Two fabrics and six colours… We won’t bore you by telling you what you can wear this shirt with, but suffice to say, it works well with all sorts, from jeans to shorts to faithfully restored Victorian diving suits. It’s a dream for pairing, if not for rapid decision-making. Even better, now we’ve nailed the perfect cut, we can keep adding more colours and patterns to the range - assuming you let us know what we’re missing.
All the production steps for your Ideal Shirt
What goes into making your Ideal Shirt. The materials have travelled a total of 4,924 km (3,059 miles) for the plain Oxford, 4,195 km (2,606 miles) for the Oxford with patterns, and 33,699 km (20,939 miles) for the Denim version from field to doormat.
Harvesting and preparing the cotton
Farming cooperatives Turkey for the Oxford version, Zimbabwe for the Denim version
Spinning
Yamachu Spinning Co.,Ltd for the Denim version Turkey for the Oxford version, Japanfor the Denim version
Weaving
TMG Group for the Oxford version, Yamaashi Orimono Co. Ltd for the Denim version Portugal, Japan
Labels : OEKO-TEX Standard 100, GRS, BCI
Dyeing
MGC Acabamentos Têxteis for the plain Oxford and Facol for the Oxford with patterns; Sakamoto Denim Co. Ltd for the Denim version. Japan for the Chambray versions and Portugal for the Oxford versions
Social certifications : OEKO-TEX Standard 100, STEP by OEKO-TEX for the Oxford versions (+ REACH and GRS for the pattern Oxford versions)
Finish
MGC Acabamentos Têxteis for the plain Oxford and TMG for the Oxford with patterns; Bichuu Senko for the Denim version. Japan for the Chambray versions and Portugal for the Oxford versions
Social certifications : OEKO-TEX Standard 100, STEP by OEKO-TEX (+ BCI and GRS for the Oxford with patterns)
Production
Vermis for the Oxford version, J.Caetano & Filhas for the Denim version Portugal
Social certifications : BSCI Grade A for the Denim version
Transport
Road and boat haulage
Environmental Impact:
Our aim is to always give you as much information as possible on the clothes we make so you can make an informed decision before preordering. This includes the environmental impact of each Ideal Shirt we produce expressed in simple terms that we can all easily understand. There’s no point hiding from it:
9.29 kg
of CO2 emitted
The equivalent of 95.7 kms (59.4 miles) by car.
5.02 g
of phosphor released in the water
The equivalent of growing 83.6 kg of apples.
124.85 MJ
energy depletion
The equivalent of 42.2h of heating (in average flat).
NO SWEAT !
Delivery costs
We deliver worldwide. For orders in selected European countries* including the UK, we charge a flat fee of 9€ irrespective of how many pieces of the same item you order. For deliveries in the rest of Europe and outside of the EU, the cost is 15€.
Easy to change sizes
If you get the wrong size, fear not, we accept returns and exchanges. For orders in Europe these are free, and for countries, in the rest of the world we ask you to pay the return and we will take care of the cost of sending out an exchange. Just log into your Asphalte account and we’ll get that sorted.
IT’S A RISK-FREE INVESTMENT
Sure, we work hard on our products, but we won’t take it personally if, for whatever reason, you change your mind about the item you’ve preordered. We’re all friends here, you can be honest with us. So long as the item is in its original condition, with tags and packaging intact, you can send it back to us for a full refund. No worries.