Engineered Garments Combo Short Collar Shirt – Jacquard

Panelling a plain cloth is one problem. Panelling a check is a different one. On a conventional checked shirt a great deal of the work goes into matching: the maker aligns the pattern across the front placket, across the yoke seam, and around the armhole, and the shirt is quietly judged on whether the lines meet. Cut it from several different checked panels instead and matching becomes impossible by construction. The seams stop being places where a pattern continues and become places where one stops and another starts.

The check is woven into the cloth rather than printed onto it, on a jacquard, the loom that controls every warp thread individually instead of lifting them in fixed groups. That is what frees a figure from having to repeat on a short interval, and it is why a jacquard has depth where a print has none: the pattern is part of the structure and reads from both faces. Navy, yellow, and green in one shirt is not a combination anybody arrives at through moderation.

Why we selected it

A checked shirt made from several checks is either a disaster or the most interesting shirt a person owns, and the whole difference is whether the colours were chosen by someone who knew what they were doing.

The Combo is a standing model in Engineered Garments’ shirting rather than a one-season idea, and the house rebuilds it each year from whatever cloths it wants to set against one another.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, jacquard woven, made in the USA. A button-up shirt built from panels of different fabric. Colour: Navy, yellow, and green madras.

Fit notes

A short collar is cut with shorter points than a standard shirt collar, so it sits closer to the neck and reads smaller under a jacket. A jacquard-woven cotton carries a little more body than a plain weave of the same weight, because the figure itself adds structure to the cloth, so this holds its shape through a day better than a light check usually does.

Styling

With the Sailor Pant in olive. With the Natural Cotton Heavy Fatigue Pant. Under the Loiter Jacket in olive nylon, where one flat colour holds three loud ones in place.

Care

Wash cool and hang to dry. A cloth carrying several saturated colours can move a little in its first washes, so wash it alone the first time and keep it out of strong sun while it dries. Press from the back if you press it at all, so the woven figure is not flattened. Our cotton care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same shirt in white and blue is the Combo Short Collar Shirt with embroidery. The Tibet Shirt opens asymmetrically on a tie, and the Sailor Pant in olive and the Natural Cotton Heavy Fatigue Pant are the trousers. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.