Out of all of the garments in our closets, from tees to jeans to chinos, there may be no item more timeless, versatile, and indispensable as the Oxford cloth button-down. It’s a style so ubiquitous, it’s often taken for granted. As though it’s always been a fixture in menswear, and always will. And while the latter half of that assumption is likely spot on, there was a lot of intention and history that went into the Oxford shirt becoming the icon we recognize it as today.
As a brand that got our start making custom shirts out of a garage in San Francisco, we knew from the start that if we were going to craft an Oxford of our own, it had to be something special. So we went back to the drawing board on a mission to create an Oxford shirt informed by the lessons we’d learned in bespoke shirtmaking and emblematic of the principles we’ve stood for since day one—to create gear that’s Responsibly Built For The Long Haul.
We called the fruits of our labor The Jack, after its “Jack of all trades” versatility, and almost two decades later, it’s still the shirt our community comes back for.
A Brief History of The Oxford
The story of how the Oxford shirt as we know it today came into being is one of trans-continental travel, the ingenuity of a few early athletes, and the enterprising sensibility of one American shirtmaker. It’s a tale too long to tell here, so we wrote an entire article about it.
What Makes an Oxford an Oxford?
The defining characteristics of a true Oxford that set it apart from other styles of button-up shirts are few, but crucial. Firstly, it is made from Oxford cloth, a durable, tightly woven, plain weave cloth traditionally crafted from 100% cotton. Secondly, it sports a softer, unstructured collar as opposed to the stiff collars found on proper dress shirts. And lastly, it has a button-down collar, where the collar points—and sometimes the back of the collar—can be secured to the body of the shirt via small buttons and buttonholes.
Outside of that short checklist, the Oxford is largely up for interpretation. The inclusion of a pocket (or two), a box pleat, pair of knife pleats, or lack of pleats, style of placket and cuff, and even the fiber makeup of the Oxford cloth are all details to be decided by the designer.
Which brings us to the decisions we made nearly two decades ago when designing an Oxford of our own, and why we’ve chosen to not change a thing in all the years since.
The One, The Only, The Jack
The Jack, like most things with staying power, was born out of a solution. In our years of custom shirt making, we started to notice a few trends in what guys wanted from a bespoke shirt, because nothing in the market was offering them.
Firstly, they wanted a shirt that was fitted in the chest. While the old-school Oxford shirts tended toward a loose, blousy fit, contemporary guys were looking for something that fit a bit more tailored and better accentuated their physique.
Secondly, they wanted a shirt with higher arm holes. Classic Oxfords did their best to offer mobility in a way that was easy to mass produce and felt at home with a more billowy fit, so they cut their arm holes wider and lower. While this does allow for mobility, it also creates a lot of excess fabric that bunches up when the arms are at rest and makes for a messy silhouette.
In contrast, a well tailored, higher arm-hole, while more complicated to achieve, allows for even better mobility along with a tidier silhouette. Drafting and cutting this style of arm hole demands precision, meticulous craftsmanship, and a deeper understanding of anatomy, but to us, the results are well worth the effort.
Lastly, our custom shirting clients wanted a shirt that felt great against the skin and would stand the test of time. To provide these qualities, we turned to 100% organic cotton and durable double-needle construction.
While cotton is naturally breathable and wears in well over time, softening with each wash and wear, fabrics like polyester trap moisture and break down with age. The only drawback with cotton is an environmental one. Cotton is a thirsty crop that relies on a lot of pesticides for cultivation, and all of that can take quite a toll on the local habitats of cotton producing communities. So we decided to source 100% organic cotton for The Jack. It uses less water and no harmful chemicals to grow while retaining all of the benefits of conventional cotton—we call that a win-win.
To ensure The Jack would age beautifully and stay out of the landfill for as long as possible, we employed construction techniques often reserved for workwear, like double-needle felled seams and lock stitched buttons and buttonholes. By the time we put all of these pieces together into a single design, we realized we had created something that was new to the market, so we decided to make it our first ready-to-wear design—The Jack.
Styling a Classic
The Jack is built on a timeless Oxford blueprint, and designed to live up to its name, so when it comes to styling, it works just as well with some beat up blue jeans and boots as it does tucked into some chinos at the office.
To get a better picture of just how versatile The Jack is, and pick up some style inspiration along the way, check out our Journal on how to style an oxford shirt.
The Many Faces of Jack
While the core formula has remained unchanged, our signature button-down has seen a lot of different fabrications over the years, and frankly, we’ve yet to find a fabric that The Jack can’t pull off.
Whether it’s an airy poplin or seersucker for summer, a burly waffle or roped indigo iteration, or the classic Oxford cloth styles, The Jack has lived up to its reputation as a shirt we can reach for in any season or setting under the sun.
Explore the full roster of styles to find the perfect Jack for you—because to truly appreciate The Jack, you’ve got to wear one for yourself.
