Recent Acquisitions: Vintage Chambray Shirt

I love the idea of vintage clothing.  Vintage shopping is an excellent way to make an outfit your own - few things bring as much joy as scoring an old school Ralph Lauren shirt nobody else has (even though there’s a strong secondhand market for the brand), or an L.L. Bean camp shirt embroidered with custom patches that hint at the former wearer’s background.  Because I’m a skinny guy, I have difficulty fitting into most vintage clothing.  Most sizes run too large for me, and the pieces guys wore in the 1960s and ‘70s feature generous fits that don’t flatter like today’s garments do (though their textiles are often superior).

My recent trip to Portland proved more fruitful for vintage acquisitions than my daily meanderings around Minneapolis.  At Beacon Sound, a record store cum vintage shop, I found a vintage red bandana with a selvedge edge (which I’ve taken to wearing like a Midwestern cowboy) and a U.S. Navy-issued chambray shirt.  Several weeks back, I mentioned I was on the lookout for a fall weight chambray shirt and it looks like the style Gods answered my prayers.

I was skeptical of the shirt at first because of the large pointed collar.  While I like a formidable collar, I don’t want to look like I walked out of the back half of the 1970s.  Upon careful observation, however, I realized the collar and trim body had more in common with clothing from the earlier part of the decade (and the late 1960s) and found it rather dignified after several try-ons.  In fact, I like it enough that I’m starting to find the collars on my J. Crew and Club Monaco shirts too small for my taste.

The printed details near the hemline give away the garment’s navy provenance.  Not only does it give away the manufacturing information, it spells out the shirt’s composition and the laundry instructions, a welcome change from modern shirt tags that are hidden and difficult to read.  The cut is trim - after all, it was designed to be worn as part of the crisp uniform of navy men - without being too slim and the mid-length hemline makes it appropriate to tuck in or wear out.  Though the shirt is not full regalia, nothing beats a man in uniform, whether his company’s or his own.

Shirt: Vintage U.S. Navy, Chinos: Club Monaco, Vest: Belstaff, Bandana: Vintage, Boots: Red Wing Heritage