Comme des Garçons Ruffle Chest LS Button Up

A ruffle is normally a hemmed strip of cloth gathered along one edge, and the hem is what makes it read as decorative: a finished edge announces that somebody chose to put it there. Shredding the edge takes that announcement away. The panel still gathers and still stands off the chest, but its outer edge is open and irregular, so from a distance it reads as a soft mass rather than as a row of frills, and from close up it reads as something that has been made and then undone. On a sheer black cloth that is a particularly effective combination, because a shredded edge on something you can partly see through produces a gradient rather than a line: the ruffle has no clear boundary, it simply becomes less present. The shirt underneath the panels stays entirely conventional, a long-sleeved button-up with a placket and cuffs, which is what keeps the whole thing from tipping into costume.

The difference between a hemmed ruffle and a shredded one is the difference between a garment we would sell and one we would not. This is the second kind.

Unfinished edges have been a Comme des Garçons position since the collections Paris first refused, and a shredded ruffle is that argument applied to the most decorative element in dressmaking.

One hundred percent polyester. Made in Japan. Sheer long-sleeved button-up with shredded ruffle panels. Color: black.

Sized at the shoulder and the chest like any button-up, with a little extra depth at the front from the panels. Sheer means sheer; decide what is underneath before you decide the size.

Over the Ruffle Chest Tank, which is the version we would argue for, since the tank's built front sits behind the shirt's undone one. With the Wide Crop Trouser or the Wide Pleated Trousers.

Wash cool and in a bag, because a shredded edge is exactly what catches on everything else in a machine, and do not iron the panels. Hang to dry with room around the front. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Ruffle Top is a white, hemmed version of the same idea. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.