The Only T-Shirt Worth Spending 50 Bucks On

A strong preference against costly T-shirts is challenged by a specific $50 tee from Imogene + Willie. The shirt is described as a one-of-one product that does not loudly market sustainability or perfect fit, yet is presented as the best T-shirt on Earth. The brand’s Cotton Project focuses on small-batch clothing with a minimized supply chain. Cotton is grown at a seventh-generation farm in Courtland, Alabama, then spun at a third-generation family-owned mill in Thomasville, North Carolina. The fabric is sent to Dignity Apparel in Tazewell, Tennessee for shirt production, keeping every stage within about 400 miles of the brand’s home in Georgia.

"I've gone on the record as being vehemently against expensive T-shirts. I still stand behind my old arguments. Wearing a white tee and being afraid of coffee stains, mustard stains, sweat stains, or whatever is fundamentally missing the point-one of the dumbest ways to live your life. If you can wear a T-Shirt from The Row with reckless abandon, that's sick, please do. But I don't like when my fellow fashion editors (sometimes, from within this magazine) talk about the cut and weight of a $500 T-Shirt. You'd be better off spending that money at the casino, because you're burning it either way."

"But some things are worth spending on, and as happens with every staunchly held opinion, I've had to eat crow on this one. I now buy $50 T-shirts, a price that a younger version of myself would say is ridiculous. The tee that broke me? It was Imogene + Willie's Cotton Project tee, a one-of-one product that's not trying to make a big claim about sustainability (though it could) or perfecting fit (though it could). The brand is quietly making the best T-shirt on Earth."

"Here's where I'll also let slip that there's some hometown bias in this fashion suggestion. I'm from Georgia, and as much as I care about clothing that's made anywhere in the U.S.A., I get a special feeling the closer to home its made. The Cotton Project is an initiative from Imogene + Willie to make small-batch clothes with the smallest supply chain possible. The cotton for the shirts is grown at a seventh-generation farm in Courtland, Alabama, and it gets spun at a third-generation family-owned mill in Thomasville, North Carolina."

"From there it goes to Dignity Apparel in Tazewell, Tennessee, to get turned into a T-shirt. That means every stage of this tee's life-span takes place within 400-miles of Imogene + Willie's home in Nas"

Read at Esquire