Camiel Fortgens Inside-Out Basic Shirt

Exposed seams are the whole garment. A shirt is normally the most concealed thing in a wardrobe: French seams, felled seams, turned hems, and interfacings, all of it engineered so that the inside is as clean as the outside and none of the work is visible. Turning that out means the seam allowances, the joins, and the cut edges are on the surface, and the shirt stops being a smooth object and becomes a diagram of itself. What keeps it wearable rather than merely clever is that nothing else has been touched. The cut is a classic relaxed button-down, the cloth is a plain cotton, and the color is a coral rather than a difficult shade. It is an ordinary shirt with its working shown, which is more or less the argument of the house in one garment.

Very few makers will show a customer how a shirt is actually put together, and fewer still will do it on a shirt somebody would wear to lunch. That combination is the reason this is on the rail.

Exposed construction is what this house says it does, and of everything it makes, a button-down shirt is the garment where that decision costs the most and shows the most.

One hundred percent cotton, made in Portugal. Classic relaxed button-down cut, with raw edges and exposed seams. Color: Coral.

Relaxed through the body rather than oversized, so it fits like a shirt and not like a jacket. Exposed seams sit against the skin where a concealed seam would not, which is worth knowing before it is worn next to the body on a warm day. Raw edges soften and fray slightly with washing and then settle.

With the Suit Pants, which is the pairing that sets the exposed seams against a tailored line. With the Normal Jeans. Under the Simple Jacket, worn open, so the seams still read.

Wash cool and gently and dry flat or on a line. Heat and agitation are what turn a deliberate raw edge into a frayed one, so this shirt in particular should not see a hot machine or a tumble dryer. Press on the reverse. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Boxy Shirt is the same cotton cut square with its hems left raw, and the Big Shirt Blockprint is the oversized cut with a print carried front and back. Everything we carry from Camiel Fortgens is listed together.