Label Under Construction Over Shirt

An overshirt is a shirt asked to do a jacket’s job, and the details here are all about making that possible without turning it into a jacket. The mandarin collar is the first: no lapel, no collar stand falling open at the throat, just a band, which means the garment closes cleanly at the neck and can be worn as the outermost thing without looking like a shirt somebody forgot to put a jacket over. The raw hem is the second, and it is the house’s signature rather than an economy. A hem left raw does not announce where the garment ends, so the eye reads the shirt as a length of cloth rather than as a finished rectangle, and on linen a raw edge softens and fringes very slightly with washing instead of fraying away. The buttons are mother-of-pearl, cut from shell, which is heavier and cooler in the hand than plastic and, more usefully, does not go dull with washing the way a resin button does. The color is Sage, a gray-green that sits between a neutral and a color and behaves as either depending on what is next to it.

Why we selected it

The linen overshirt is the most useful thing anyone can own in a high desert, and almost every version of it is either too structured to be comfortable or too soft to hold a shape. The mandarin collar and the raw hem are what put this one in the middle.

Label Under Construction is known first for its knitwear, and the cut-and-sew is governed by the same idea: the finish is the design rather than something applied at the end.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent linen. Mandarin collar, raw hem, mother-of-pearl buttons. Color: Sage. We do not hold a country of origin for this piece.

Fit notes

We do not hold measurements. Cut as an over-layer, so it is sized to go over a tee rather than against the skin, and the Parabolic Zip Seam Tee and the Crew Neck Arched Tee are both thin enough to sit under it without changing the size you need. Linen relaxes across a day at the elbow and the back and recovers with washing.

Styling

Over the Crew Neck Arched Tee in Green Bottle, where sage against bottle green is two greens doing different jobs. Over the Parabolic Zip Seam Tee in Dark Beige for the quietest version. With the Yoke Pockets Wide Jean, linen on linen, which is a texture pairing rather than a matching one.

Care

Wash gently and cool. Press while damp, which is the whole of linen care and the part most people skip. Pay attention to the raw hem, which will soften and fringe slightly with washing and is supposed to: do not trim it, and do not let a dry cleaner finish it. Mother-of-pearl is shell and will dull under bleach and under high heat, so keep both away from the buttons. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Yoke Pockets Wide Jean is the same linen cut as a trouser, and the Crew Neck Arched Tee is the plainer of the two cotton tees that go under this. Everything we carry from Label Under Construction is listed together.