Half-hidden placket raglan shirts

Not for nothing do raglan shirts fit so well with better weather — scrap the yoke and the shoulder seams and things get immediately airier. This raglan shirt is made from a fine Cumbria-woven cotton pinpoint, the discipline of a good wash softening up its characteristic crispiness.

The pinpoint — so-called because of the minute pin-size imprints that cover its surface — is used most commonly as a dress-shirt fabric. It’s a high-quality cotton made from high-quality yarn, and is a finer weave than the average Oxford — an ideal warm-day weight.

Being washed, it’s softer than normal, and will soften up more with wear. Washing also means the seams — along the collar, placket, and everywhere else — are subtly puckered.

The second button on the placket sits close to the top one, so if wearers don’t button all the way up, the next best thing isn’t far off. Provisions have also been made so that arms don’t droop over wearers’ wrists.

The hem of the body of the shirt is arrow-straight, while the collar, cuffs, and stitching on the placket are rounded off. The placket is concealed from halfway down, leading some, perhaps, into the misapprehension that the shirt’s been hitched up over the head.

There are two colours: off-white — one part ecru to nine parts white — and a light sky blue. Buttons on both are natural corozo. Being off-white, they’re just-visible on the off-white, and a little more so on the sky version. Half a dozen of each are in the shop now.