Non-iron: to be or not to be?

DETERMINANT "All-Occasion Point Collar Smart Shirt" (light blue)

 @shirtingfantasy is a tireless advocate of high-count cotton shirting - after all, that is how his passion in menswear came about. What many did not know, however, was that he once aspired to owning a full wardrobe of Brooks Brothers pure cotton non-iron OCBD shirts. Unaware of their regular discount back then, @shirtingfantasy made the somewhat funny comparison of BB's retail price in Hong Kong, China with the price of bespoke shirts from Ascot Chang (see article here, there, and elsewhere). In retrospect it might not have been a bad mistake to make. 

Long story short: once @shirtingfantasy discovered the practical benefits of high-count (say, 170/2, 200/2 or even 300/2) cotton shirts, he found it a bit difficult to go back to 100/2 and below - simply because the "skin-feel" is so different. 

What are the practical benefits we are talking about?

(1) High-count cotton shirts are cooler

Shirt fabric (aka shirting) usually have only one layer - the finer the yarns, the thinner the fabric. This is why a 200/2 poplin is thinner than a 80/2 poplin, and is somewhat similar in thickness to a 100/1 poplin. 

The first number here refers to the diameter of the yarn, in a unit called New English Count (Ne). A bigger number means a finer yarn. The second number means the number of "plys" - basically how many yarns are twisted together to form the actual one used to weave your fabric.

Do not make the mistake to think that "high count fabric doesn't let air through and you will suffocate in your shirt". Yarn count is NOT the number of yarns per inch or cm. The technical term for that is called weft and warp count / density, for the lengthwise and widthwise directions of yarns, respectively. 

(2) High-count cotton shirts dry quickly

A thinner cloth dries faster than a thicker cloth of the same material and weave - usually - if only because the latter holds more water per unit area. 

While I am not entirely sure about how capillary actions operate to affect evaporation in this context, I would tend to think that thickness is the most important determining factor in determining how fast your shirt would dry - compared to something of the same material and finishing. 

(3) High-count cotton shirts from quality fabric is surprisingly durable

Let's make things clear: finer yarns are less durable (simple logic), but luxury shirt fabric often use 2x2 construction (both weft and warp being two-ply) - which usually offsets any degradation in durability due to a finer yarn per se. While cotton, wool, and polyester cannot be considered "equal", with proper consideration of this limitation in mind, we may take reference from a contemporary study on yarn-ply and weave pattern on durability and other properties of a woven cloth -

"It seems that for all weave structures, abrasion resistance of yarns is as follows: two-ply ring > Solo >Siro > single-ply ring"

"Two-ply ring-spun yarn consists of two single-ply yarns that passed the doubling and second twisting after the first stage of twisting. These processes improve the fiber trapping in the yarn structure. However, single-ply yarn has lower abrasion resistance because of the loose structure and low yarn compactness; therefore, the yarn’s structure is easily destroyed after facing the abrasive forces."

- in Tahvildar, Ali, Nazanin Ezazshahabi, and Fatemeh Mousazadegan. "Appearance and comfort properties considering yarn-spinning system and weave structure in worsted woven fabrics." Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics 14 (2019): 1558925019845978.

So, while a 200/2 x 200/2 fine DJA poplin is likely less durable than a casual 80/2 x 80/2 Oxford (yes - you do have two-ply Oxford cotton from Alumo), it may not be worse than the 100/1 x 100/1 fabric that is used to make your HKD 1,000 / 3 shirt "value bespoke".

But now @shirtingfantasy is ignoring all these. In the limiting case which we cannot - or do not want to - spend HKD 500 on Thomas Mason fine cotton, HKD 300 just for the making of the shirt, or both, certain trade-offs have to be made (e.g. smooth and soft hand of the fabric, comfort, absolute durabiliy). To view this from a more holistic perspective, the user of budget shirts would also likely benefit also from the ease of care / low maintenance of a practical shirt. 

So here it goes: I bought a total of five shirts from the Esquel Group-owned brand DETERMINANT (two at the Moko pop-up store with 15% off, three more online with a not-so-secret discount code with an even better discount). I washed, worn (without ironing), and repeated the cycle for one of the shirts to see how the wrinkle-free treatment performs:

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A post shared by Tom Ho (@shirtingfantasy)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Ho (@shirtingfantasy)

Before the first wash

After the first wash

After the second wash

As may be expected, the wrinkle-free treatment rendered the shirt wearable immediately after wash and tumble dry. In a more practical sense, it means the shirt would look perfect under a jacket, and likely look less wrinkled than a freshly ironed fine pure cotton shirt (say, 140/2 x 140/2) after 15 minutes of wear. 

DETERMINANT Wrinkle-Free Dress Shirt in mint green

General comments

• Shirts are wearable right after wash and tumble dry, and they do not crease a lot with normal daily wear.
• The fabric is not sheer, not the coolest, but is bearable in Southern China in Summer (read: 30°C, RH 70%). The fabric (both their poplin and pinpoint Oxford) also has a delightful soft hand and is absorbent. The "plastic feel" is minimal despite the anti-wrinkle treatment. 
• The fabric has a slight stretch (as advertised). That is something I really like. 
• The colours are not the greatest. The white has a yellow tint, the blue is greyish, and mint green (as seen in above photo) looks like bleached and lacking in saturation. Overall the colours are muted and not attractive. 

Specific comments and limitations of this evaluation

• The claim of "80/2 yarns" is tricky. If one looks at their Taobao store one can see that they are cutting corners by using 80/2 x 40/1 construction. As evident from discussions above, the only consideration can only be cost compression. 
• The collars are quite small and do not spread wide enough. The claim that they "use a spread collar design on our dress shirts... looks good whether you wear the shirt with or without a tie" is only partly true. It actually looks better without a tie, or only with a very narrow tie / tiny knot. 
• Buttons are plastic. Like it or not, I consider it more practical for shirts in this price range.
• It was not possible to evaluate whether the fabric is pure cotton (without even 1-2% of Lycra or Spandex), or indeed resists bad odour due to bacterial growth as claimed (I did not wear the shirts continuously).

Isn't this collar much better? This is not a DET shirt! (shirt and suit: @taipanrow_hk)

Until then, goodbye!

DETERMINANT shirts

https://shop.detshirts.com

Minimum order: 1 shirt

Price range: HKD 358 (short sleeves), HKD 398 (normal dress shirts), or HKD 498 (anti-viral claim). Discount codes here and there. 

CMT service: Obviously no

Handmade options: You must have been delusional

DETERMINANT pop-up store (until 30 Sep 2021)

MTR Floor Atrium A, MOKO

Mong Kok East

MTR Station Exit D