Just as our jeans are intended to be worn everyday for many different occasions, our founder wanted to introduce a shirt to the LR line that could also be worn in the same way. This led to the development of the LR12 chambray shirt, inspired by the WWII US Navy Issue shirt of the 1940s.
At its origin, the chambray shirt resulted from the need to produce a shirt that was high in quality and durable, but with the assembly processes that allowed for the quantity demand of war time manufacturing. It’s for this reason that while this was a military shirt, it was made with finesse in the execution, which is a rarity these days. Iconically American, the LR12 is a shirt between formal and workwear, finding its place as easily with a pair of jeans, as with your favourite suit jacket.
The starting point of the LR12 was to reproduce the signature shape and proportions of the WWII US Navy shirt, but it was particularly the uniquely beautiful way that this shirt ages that fascinated our founder: the threads and fabric that shrink slightly, the fabric that becomes ever softer with age, while retaining tactile structure, and the collar and cuffs, which are deliberately unlined, that deform subtly.
Therefore we sought to create the LR12 with all the original techniques to achieve this imperfect character. Staying true to the period, we insisted on assembly by hand with minimal ironing – a solution employed in the 1940s to save on manufacturing time – and foregoing automation with guides that are standard for modern shirt production. The result is a roughness in the construction, less than perfect, characterised by unevenness and lack of homogeneity in the pleats and seams. The stitching operations faithfully observe the period, including small needle gauge with feed off the arm chainstitch sewing machines, a high Stitch Per Inch (SPI), and one needle stitchwork on the pockets, wrists and collars. Particularly difficult to source was the blue aluminium buttons. The enamel of the buttons begin in a high gloss finish, but after repeated washing, will begin to wear away, revealing the aluminium tone underneath. Ever more so after wear and wash, the LR12 shirt exudes a feeling of ease that challenges the formal shirt archetype.
We developed a 6 oz lightweight chambray fabric for the LR12, with a subtle slubbiness, as close in colour as the original of the period, particularly as the fabric fades. The feeling with wash and wear is soft and breathable, and, as with the construction, combining look with function.
280,00 €
Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large
Superstitch MFG.
13 rue racine, 75006 Paris FRANCE
Superstitch MFG.
13 rue racine, 75006 Paris FRANCE
