Comme des Garçon Eyelet Button-Up

Eyelet is a cloth defined by what has been removed from it. Holes are cut into a woven ground and then stitched around the edge so that they stay open, and the pattern is made from the negative space. It is an old technique and a demanding one, because everything depends on the ground being stable enough to hold an opening under tension. That is where the composition here matters. Fifty-six percent cotton gives the shirt the hand and the matte surface you want against skin, and forty-four percent nylon gives the ground the resilience to keep the eyelets round after a hundred wearings, where an all-cotton eyelet will gradually relax and go soft at the edges. The result is semi-sheer, because a cloth with that much taken out of it cannot be anything else, and the floral arrangement of the openings reads as a pattern from across a street and as construction from arm’s length.

Why we selected it

Eyelet usually arrives attached to something summery and slight. A long-sleeved button-up is the version we would actually wear, and the nylon in it is the reason we expect to still be wearing it.

The main line is consistently more interested in how a cloth is built than in what is printed on it, and an eyelet worked as a floral makes the pattern out of the construction itself.

Materials and construction

Fifty-six percent cotton and forty-four percent nylon. Made in Japan. Long-sleeved button-up, semi-sheer, with a floral eyelet.

Fit notes

A button-up is sized at the shoulder and the chest. Semi-sheer means what it says, so this shirt is designed to be worn over something or to be worn knowingly, and that should be part of the sizing decision rather than an afterthought. Nylon in the ground means the cloth recovers rather than growing at the elbow.

Styling

Over the Tank Top, where the sequins sit behind the eyelet and show through it. Tucked into the Wide Crop Trouser or the Wide Pleated Trousers. Under the Sweater Vest Hoodie for the version where only the sleeves show.

Care

Nylon is the fiber that sets the limit on this shirt even though there is less of it, because cotton tolerates heat and nylon does not. Wash cool, never hot, keep the iron low and use a cloth, and do not tumble dry. An open-worked cloth also catches on fastenings, so wash it away from anything with a hook. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Eyelet LS with Mesh Overlay puts eyelet under a mesh overlay instead of leaving it open. There is more on the house on the Comme des Garçons designer page. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.