Lately clothing ads coming over my transom have been featuring men’s shirts with an extra side button. When you press the usual buttonhole around THAT button, it pulls the shirt into an asymmetrical form-fitting wrapped number.
I see it as the trickling down of good ideas from designers like Commes des Garcons that have been around for years. And of course, I think: I can just sew an extra button my own big shirts…
….Or easier yet, use a magnet.
I’m a big fan of clothing magnets as instant fasteners. Although I devised my own slightly clunky version years ago, I’ve found Maggie’s Magnets have a minimal, polished profile and work great. Imagine a magnetized sphere that sits in a magnetic ring. You sandwich two pieces of cloth between the two to hold it in place.
I use them to wrap a big Rick Owens cardigan snugly around me in winter, or to “pin” oversize dresses and shirts into more form-fitting shapes…or secure a sarong…
In the midst of a project, I went into my closet and pulled out two poplin shirts to see what I might devise à la minute. An unusual, rather voluminous, Viviane Westwood blouse became a sort of tunic with two magnets nipping it in and holding it place. (You can see it in its original form here.)
A Uniqlo poplin men’s shirt I crinkled by twisting it while it was damp — see Cheap + Chic: Crease-Wrinkled Big Cotton Shirt — took on a kind of ethereal tissue paper look. A few more adjustments would do the trick…
Possibilities in the realm of buttons…and magnets…
The Men’s Crop Shirt, at top, is by Wearcisco, here. Carbon 38 has one here.
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