Calvin from “Calvin and Hobbes” has his lucky underpants. Indiana Jones has his hat. And I have this shirt.

This is my favorite shirt. It’s a shirt that I stumbled upon on a business trip I went to Japan last year. I had an off day and I went and shopped at Harajuku Tokyo. There was this store that I had gone to before called “Hanjiro” which is a used clothing store and I wanted to go there again to see what was up.

The words “used clothing” might conjure up some imagery of piles and piles of weird smelling clothes all messy and disorganized. It might give you an image of having to go on an archeological dig to go through piles of dirt to get that one piece of clothing. But Hanjiro is not the case. It would be more accurate to call Hanjiro in Harajuku as a “Vintage Clothing store” and not a “used clothing store”. The isles are pretty, the atmosphere is wonderful, and the clothes are top-notch in quality and design. They look brand new. And guess what? The price is super reasonable. Guess how much I got this shirt for? $35 bucks yo . Yea, MONEY. (Here is a blog I found that shows more of the interior of the store link )

Why This Shirt?

But anyways back to this shirt. Why do I like this shirt so much? If I were to put it in one sentence it’d be this

“This shirt made me appreciate the craftsmanship of clothes and the joy that it gives to the wearer“

I love this shirt not only because it fits me perfectly and has a great color but because there are so many small details about this shirt that I love!

I love the simple stitching that are nicely exposed to add a subtle design on this shirt. Also the button being this cork color is so cool.

At the sides of this shirt there are these red, blue, and white strings that can catch your eye if you were to look closely.

I love rolling up my sleeves and love how this shirt has some nice inside fabric that compliments the overall color

These red, blue, and white stitching yet again compliment the overall red blue and white theme and really makes you feel the maker of this shirt planned for times when the wearer would roll his sleeves up. 

I love these small details for two reasons:

1) Finding Beauty In the Small Things

I think clothes are often things that we just look at face value and not really care about how it was made. But this shirt is not that. Certainly you can just glance over it but when you really look at how it was made and designed, there is this depth to it. I love that because that’s what I strive to be as a person. I’m not perfect and I can often overlook things, scenery, and worse people. But looking deeper can reveal hidden beauties that are in front of us. I guess I’m following the principle of what you wear can at times speak to what you think of yourself and the world. That sort of value is somethingI hope to strive for and improve on.

2) Harmony and Balance

I love that even though there are a lot of details on this shirt, overall its really well balanced and put together. All the details are placed in different places so that when you look at the shirt from different angles you can see different things from the “red blue white” french flag theme. Everything is in harmony.

And of course, overall this shirt is really practical. I can pair it with my favorite Zara pants and blue is my favorite color so I can pair it with so many things.

Do you have a favorite shirt? What do you think of mine? Tell me!

All pictures were taken and edited by the lovely Elisha Fong!  Please check her out at http://www.facebook.com/fieldgemsphotography