Men's Cotton & Silk Sweater/Shirt

December 16, 2016 5:22 AM

I bought (at a thrift store) a heavy shirt/light sweater made by the GAP that is a cotton/silk blend. I like it because it is soft, light, warm, and seems to resist pilling and to generally wear well. Can you help me find another source for shirts like this? There are some on Amazon, but they are "fitted," which means that they cannot handle my voluptuousness. I'm male, and I'm looking for men's/unisex styling.
posted by OmieWise to Shopping (4 answers total)

Do you do ebay at all? You can find gently used cotton/silk shirts and sweaters in men's sizes easily on there. Search both casual shirts and tshirts (and also sweaters, of course). What I usually do when I'm really looking for something is run several searchers - one using the sorting checkboxes to the left (include silk, silk blends and cotton blends - people are unreliable about accurately tagging fabric mixes) and a search using the top of the page search bar. For this, go into the section you want (casual shirts, tees, sweaters, etc) and only then type "cotton silk XL" (or whatever size).

The used/new toggles tend to be pretty accurate. Also, if you're looking at new shirts, you probably want to set it at US-only to weed out most of the equivocal stuff shipped from China. (I'm sure there's good stuff in there, but a lot of it looks like it's not what it says it is.)

I have had very good luck over the years with eBay - my entire outfit today is from eBay, actually, almost all of it bought used.

For me, getting the size right requires several things:
- an eye for the shape of the garment (so, is it super fitted, baggy, etc)
- knowing my measurements (I know that a sweater which measures from this to that in the chest will fit; button fronts should be bigger as they do not stretch.)
- a sense of whether I am a standard size or between sizes. So XLs usually fit me unless they run really slim, for instance; a very large L will sometimes fit; XXLs are almost always too big.

I am also willing to roll up my sleeves - in fact, I kind of have to, because I'm short, kind of fat and have really broad shoulders underneath it all, so I wear clothes that are generally bought by taller people. So I accept that many sweaters and shirts will need to have the sleeves rolled or pushed up, and I incorporate that into my look. If you are of average height this may not be a problem.

I have several silk-cotton shirts from eBay. For button-fronts, I have had good luck with (gently used) Ralph Lauren (not all RL shirts have the annoying horse) and Tommy Bahama (you need to sort a lot to eliminate the tropicalia). For sweaters, I have had good luck with Ralph Lauren (again), Brooks Brothers and various italian brands that I've found by searching for silk sweaters or silk cotton sweaters.

If you are buying on eBay, it is best to stick to things you know will work (unless you have a really good eye). Over the years, I've learned that my most successful eBay purchases are nearly always pretty standard in cut and fit - no wacky eighties sweaters, for instance, or unusual styles, because I don't know how they'll work. I also tend to skip really fitted clothes unless I am very confident in the particular item for some reason (or unless it has stretch!). Really fitted clothes are hard enough to get right in a shop.
posted by Frowner at 5:54 AM on December 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Great idea! I do use ebay, but I have never thought to get clothes there, other than shoes.
posted by OmieWise at 5:56 AM on December 16, 2016

Yep, if you don't have issues with wearing other people's clothes a lot of times you can find stuff by places like Gap on eBay. There's practically a cottage industry doing it. I've also used sites like ThredUp for women's stuff but they don't seem to have men's gear (though might be worth a looksee just in case, esp if you wouldn't mind a female equivalent). I basically keep a standing saved search on ebay for a particular kind of jeans that fits just right and have them email me when one comes in. You can get decent stuff for a fraction of the list price. If the shirt you have is fairly recent it may even have a model name/number on it that you can use for searching. Also if you know you're a Gap fit you can also check their clearance for something similar in possibly merino.
posted by jessamyn at 7:17 AM on December 16, 2016

In re eBay: also be very aware of how fits change over time. We're in the middle of a very-trim-fit moment, for instance. Eighties through early nineties shirts and sweaters tend not only to be oversized but to be shorter since pants had higher waists; also they tend to have more dropped/broadened shoulders. Nineties through mid-2000s clothes tend to have a medium fit - shoulders are inset, body is slightly loose but not baggy.

I say this because you can end up with, eg, a Gap shirt from 2005 that fits really differently from an otherwise similar Gap shirt from 2015.

If a shirt says that it is slim-fit or tailored, etc, I never buy without measurements. Some slim fits are moderately slim and I need to size up; some are super slim and I basically can't fit into them; and some are just a stylistic difference and I take my normal size.

And note that some British shirts are sized differently - it's not even European sizing, but its own thing. So you'll see shirts that are, like, a 5 or a 7 that are like a US XXL. (This isn't even because Americans are fatter - we are, but not that much fatter.) So be careful if you see a nice used Paul Smith or Robert Graham and check the measurements.
posted by Frowner at 7:24 AM on December 16, 2016