Raglan Addict
THE RADAR // Issue #26
Welcome back to THE RADAR, The Prep Club’s fortnightly mini-magazine keeping you in the loop of what’s hip in the sphere of collegiate threads. You can attend last week’s meeting here, for our latest button-down buyers guide.
Here’s what’s on the radar this week:
— The very best sleeve construction
— A chino buying guide
— Barbour’s latest in a long line of collaborations
— Why it’s important to pull out a stunt fit from time to time
This ended up being a long one, if you’re reading on email you might need to hop over to the app/ website to dig the whole thing. Also, this issue marks one year of THE RADAR!
Raglan Addict
I probably think about sleeve constructions more than the average fellow, I imagine you do too, that’s why you’re here. What I’ve come to realise through this ruminating, and in a moment following a gentleman in an enormous overcoat (comically so, I mean) around a grocery store, is that if I am an advocate for one thing in the fashion world, let it be the raglan sleeve.
Such a sleeve is named for the First Baron Raglan, Fitzroy Somerset, who adopted a coat with this sort of sleeve after losing an arm in the battle of Waterloo, but you probably know that story, some poor copywriter dusts it off every couple of years when they need a quick blog post. Speculations on its widespread adoption credit greater manoeuvrability and layering opportunity by virtue of a roomy underarm region, and better water resistance due to seam locations, essentially matters of practicality. What I would say though is there’s a fair deal going unsung on it’s aesthetic appeal, when making attempts to explain it’s popularity.
Really, what’s had me interested in such a pointed fashion is realising just how many of my favourite garms are sporting a raglan. There are the obvious ones, I refuse to shut up about Balmacaan coats for example, and I’m of course partial to a raglan sweatshirt, but there’s also mountain parkas, Barbour jackets, Baracuta G9s, they’ve all got ‘em. Those practical factors are definitely at play here, these are all kinda rain jackets, so that waterproofing is probably a factor, and they’re all pretty tidy layering numbers, but the biggest strength of the raglan I think is how it shapes the shoulder.
Especially with stiffer materials, like those used for outerwear, or fleeces for sweatshirts, a dropped, set shoulder can be a little difficult to hash out, it can end up too boxy, but more than that in can just be a little uncomfortable, which is truly the easiest way to drain the sauce form a fit. The Raglan sort of spills off of the shoulder, since there’s no clear sense of where the torso ends and the arm begins, the top of the outfit gains a sort of brilliant amorphousness. The paradox though is that it also feels more natural, it follows the way the human shoulder is shaped far better than a set shoulder, which is most likely what afforded our old mate the Baron greater manoeuvrability when he first adopted it. Which brings us to a certain strange irony, a design that was brought about in modern times by a gentleman who lost an arm, becomes the perfect replication of the shoulder— as a closing aside, it’s hardly the only time an accommodation in the name of access has gone on to help others far beyond whom it was originally intended for.
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The chino list (it’s quite short)
To pull back the curtain for a second, to allow you glimpse into the future, I’m currently working on a list of particularly special garments which I’d like to put forward as the Club Favourites, the very best examples in any given category. For most, that’s been rather challenging in having to narrow down the choices, there are so very many great clothes makers producing today, it’s so hard to pick just one. That is, except for chinos.
See, if one confines themselves to only garments available brand new and available for purchase online, there aren’t all that many options, not for the sort of chino I like anyway. If you happen to be partial to the classic officer chino, you’ll find yourself very well catered for, you can find options from Buzz Rickson, Orslow, RRL, Frizmworks, everyone does one, you kind of have to, and it’s a fairly easy number to bang out, straight-to-wide-ish leg, mid rise, flat-front, perfect— time to break for lunch. That’s not the chino I love though, my object of affection is the idiilic view of the nineteen-eighties Polo, Made in USA. They’re wide in the leg, with an ever-so-gentle taper, two pleats, and they trade crispy west-point twill for pre-washed cloths— sometimes even stone-washed. The other must, for me, is that they come in two colours: beige and tan— they can come in more than that but these two must be present. They may go by different names, but I’m essentially looking for two differing shades of beige, a light and a dark. As far I’m concerned they’re the only colours of chino that you really need, and any other colour can be covered by another cloth.
The true winners for cut and cloth have to be NEAT Tokyo, they nail the voluminousness that I’m after, and that high-high rise. Their only real downfall is that in order to get the two colours I’m after, you have to shop between their chino and “vintage duck” models, which isn’t a big deal but annoys me nonetheless. They pretty much perfected the entire formula with their “Super Neat” model, the perfect colour options, and a brilliantly over-kill fabric choice, but they were only a limited run. My other irk is that no-one stocks them in my size outside of Japan.
Grab NEAT from Clutch Cafe in the UK or Lost & Found in Canada, Prep Club affiliate retailers. />
Besides that, Casatlatic’s Tanger hits the spot, they’re a bit crisp looking so might want a wash or two before they’re roughed-up enough to get the coveted Prep Club SEAL OF APPROVED BREEZINESS. They’ve got the rise, and the gentle taper, though they’re a little slimmer than the NEATs, and between off-white and khaki they’ve got the colours nailed. Since unlike the NEAT these come with inseam measurements, I’d go a little longer if you can, they style these without a break in their lookbook, and we definitely want one for that relaxed feel.
To close, an affordable pick or two, I dig the 1930s Ivy Chino from Bronson, they’ve got the colour options right, though they’re both a little too saturated, and it’s pretty well made. Ditching the colour requirement, I like the Militora 1940s Two-Tuck, the reverse pleats are a cool point of difference, as is the back buckle, and the ticket pocket is far more tasteful than the gaudy-ass one that Polo stuck on the Whitman Chino.
That’s really it though, at least in the spheres of heritage makers, there’s a great cut from Nanamica, but they’re a poly-cotton blend which simply won’t fly in this house, which also takes out BEAMS. Orlsow make a nice two-tuck, but they’ve only got the one shade of beige. So really it’s down just to NEAT and Casatlantic to carry the torch, maybe I’ll just flip a coin to decide which goes on the final list.
Barbour x Kaptain Sunshine
It might well be a tradition at this point that I report on Barbour’s collaborations with somewhat obscure Japanese labels, we are, of course, relatively speaking in this case, Kaptain Sunshine are serious heavy hitters. They’re also personal favourites, so on paper this collaboration is a bit of me from the get go.
