How rare a beast is the green oxford cloth button down?
Who made them and when did they go out of style? I know Arrow made them and I think I've seen vintage BB green OCBD's but other than that I'm in the dark.
Who owns one and how versatile are they?
The modern shirts are all trash it seems. Tommy Hilfiger make them and I think RL do them too, but the look is ruined by the horsey and that cardboard collar. Gant had one in the Rugger/Hugger range over Autumn/Winter. I'm judging Gant on a case by case basis though and I never got a chance to see this one in the flesh.
Lands End have some green Hyde Park OCBD's in:
http://www.landsend.com/pp/mens-buttondown-hyde-park-oxford-dress-shirt~10667_59.html
Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2012-02-12 11:28:09)
I got a nice green Manhattan Shirt Co. one from The Weejun quite some time ago now. Similar to the poly-cotton ones above.
They do say that green is the choice of colour of genius.
Want one. Milestones style.
On it's own, only a couple of times, on account of that distinctive poly-cotton itch. Miles was on a winner when he picked his shirt in linen and not poly-cotton.
I don't think I could resist wearing it.
BB still do a linen BD in green by the way. That collar looks soft too.
http://www.brooksbrothers.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=297&Product_Id=1637663&Parent_Id=1032&default_color=GREEN&sort_by=ratings§ioncolor=Green§ionsize=
The collector in me has ensured I have vintage Brooks oxfords in a number of the shades they no longer make: green, peach, helio, yellow etc. I hardly ever wear them to be honest. I keep going back to blue, white and the blue candy stripe.
Helio is a sort of darker but still very matt lilac? I;ve never seen one of those. When did they phase that colour out NSB?
I really think I would wear the green a lot. I'd also wear the yellow and the peach a fair bit in Summer if the weather was decent.
Do you feel that the less common colours are less wearable NSB(I can see the helio being hard to wear) or is it a case of them being hard to find and the collector in you knows you won't find a replacement easily?
Helio is basically a very grey-ish purple which doesn't really suit my complexion but I can't bring myself to part with it for the reason you mention. The green BD goes quite nicely with an olive poplin suit and any toning madras tie (a lot of my madras ties seem to have some green in them somewhere), so a summer thing really.
I've tried wearing the green shirt with brown herringbone or with a camelhair coat in cooler weather but it doesn't quite work.
Miles obviously looked magnificent in his. Don't know about it being linen really: it seems to have the iridescence of cotton oxford or pinpoint cotton.
The Gant is beautiful, that was one of Zach's collection huh?
I've seen some lighter, more subtle watery root colored green oxfords in their vintage range too.
They're selling a nice bottle green oxford button down online for $115
I've been meaning to try the modern Hugger fit for a while, so I may pull the trigger if I can find a promo or shipping code around. It's just a bit more than I want to spend now. I have too many custom jacket orders being made for spring and planning to relocate to the West Coast this summer, but if I can eventually find something like the recent Brooks 4 for 40% off (or whatever it was!) sale, I'd grab it along with an eggshell, airforce blue and red.
That one I linked above was in the sale here in the UK for a couple of days until it sold out. About £35 delivered. That's a great price and I'd have bought it but it was sold out in a small months before that. If you can get a Hugger or Yale CoOp in the sale then they are worth the money. Full price? I'm not convinced.
When I was in Paris, I got one Oxford shirt made, and it is a green button down (no pocket, French front). Love it. It's similar to the Gant Hugger in color.
green was fairly common,after the colors still produced. green and peach were very big in the cuts aimed at 60s yoof (arrow cum laude, etc) and super, super common during the 80s prep revival thing (esp. bd baggies, polo, and no-name dept. store brands, more often pastel/mint rather than the vivid shades popular during the 60s).
I found that getting rid of either, even if NOS, was harder than selling bags of rotting cat faeces, so I gave up on them. But they are interesting, esp. the peach with wide green stripes arrow decton cum laude model ,which seems to have been insanely popular with college kids from the numbers i see.
EDIT: i think either farrago or NSB has a makers green college stripe, that is a rare beast, rarer than the brown college stripe. bean makes them on and off but only in tent-fit no-iron.
Last edited by Shamrockorangutan (2012-02-12 23:18:40)
Miles supposedly wore andover shirts. My andover shirts are more recent, but on those button placement is the same as brooks and has the illusion of being even lower, due to some minor nuances of cut. possibly jim or zach may have a 60s andover to compare?
Fantastic insight chaps. I don't even know where the notion came from that the Miles shirt was a brooks. Maybe just naive assumption. I'm of course no expert, as you can probably tell.
Shamrock- when you say they were super common amongst the Prepsters, were green OCBDs for a time as popular as say, the standard blue shirt?