UES Indigo Heavy Flannel Shirt

With a 14.5oz fabric, the UES heavy flannel shirt is one of our favourite flannels in the world. The fabric has been woven on old shuttle looms in Okayama by UES Denim, creating a rough exterior and a super-comfortable interior weave. It has been carefully rope-dyed so you will get fabulous fades.

The balance between the warp and weft thread is good, and the moderate movement of the fabric improves comfort. The entire shirt is full of superior-quality details and uses an outstanding, highly skilled sewing process. The main body seams have been rolled and double-chain-stitched, thus producing a sturdy garment that can be cherished for a long time. The two rounded pockets are painstakingly crafted, and the lining has been brushed to obtain an extra-soft feel.

The buttons are made from ivory palm nut with a beautiful gradient tone. Ivory palms are medium-sized-to-tall palms reaching up to a height of 20 m, with pinnate leaves. The “nut” is covered with pericarp, which is removed by animals. They help counter both the destruction of the rain forest and the elephants. For many years the buttons on uniforms worn by U.S. soldiers came from ivory palm nuts. Like so many natural dyes and textile fibres, vegetable ivory has been replaced with less expensive synthetics.

The cut is a modern slim fit.

By using the direct dyeing of coloured threads, the colours will fade moderately, and you can enjoy the soft ageing from continuous wearing and washing.

UES flannel shirts are a reinterpretation of the casual American style, and while made from a heavyweight fabric that you can feel from one touch, the slightly raised inner fabric feels soft like it’s wrapping up your body when worn. The colours of the directly dyed yarn naturally fade, so you can sense the ageing, just like with denim. From spinning, dyeing to knitted fabric, in cutting and sewing, all of this is made in Japan.

UES is a small Japanese label founded by Chuji Matsumoto in 1994. UES comes from the English word “Waste”, which means that Matsumoto-San wants you to make full use of each garment for as long as possible before discarding it. It is a small judgement of the concept of disposable wear that is so commonplace today in the world of fashion and from which Matsumoto-San disassociates himself completely.

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