SHOP $38, amazon.com or wrangler.com
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I like my clothes to be hard when I buy them. Y’all can keep the stretchy pants because I want clothes I have to beat into submission. I love breaking in leather boots that hurt, jeans, and jackets that could stand up on their own. Why? Because it makes them mine. It requires input from my end to make them comfortable, but after a few weeks, they become the most comfortable items in my closet.
I’ve already said that my jeans of choice are Wrangler. The cut is better than any other pair of jeans under $100, and the weight is better too. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that my brand loyalty extends to the torso. The best denim shirt on Earth is Wrangler. Specifically, it’s the rigid indigo western shirt, product code 70127MW. When I’m up, when I’m down, when I’m stumped on what to wear, I normally just grab one of these.
With some work, it’ll become your favorite shirt
I don’t need stretch. In the gym, I understand it, but even then I prefer a cotton tee with stiffer nylon shorts. In the real world, no stretch. Keep the elastic fibers away from me. If clothes aren’t immediately comfortable, that’s ok. As you wear them and wash them, they will come to fit your body. They become comfortable. This was common knowledge in the days of shrink-to-fit denim, but it still applies to the rigid, unwashed denim used today.
What matters when you first try clothes on is that they make you look and feel your coolest and most confident. For me, hardworn denim does exactly that. When you first buy it, it’s so stiff that it forces you to stand up straighter. But then this rigid denim shirt starts to learn your movements. The elbows get loose first. Then the reinforced shoulders start to sit more flush on your own. After that, the placket holds itself at your usual topmost button. For me, this happens in about a year. By day 365, I’m where I want to be. The shirt is broken in, tailored to my movement, and more comfortable than any “performance,” shirt I could have bought instead.
SHOP $38, amazon.com or wrangler.com
A denim shirt is more versatile than you think
It’s not just an overshirt, and it’s not just a cowboy shirt. If you’re worried you’ll look like the Marlboro Man—not a bad look—dress up a denim shirt. Derek Guy, the Twitter Menswear Guy and friend of Esquire, recently tweeted about how Nicolas Gabard of Husbands Paris wears denim shirts. Gabard pops a denim shirt, sometimes his own sometimes Wrangler, underneath a suit or sport coat for something more casual. But for the average man in the 21st century, especially when other men are in stretch shirts, performance chinos, and running sneakers, those looks are dressed up. I’ll often wear a denim shirt unbuttoned underneath a suit in New York City, and people call me out as being dressed up. Maybe that’s because I’m under 30, but it’s still a data point. Because again, these broken-in denim shirts are the most comfortable things I own. I am, not in any way, actually dressed up. But in today’s day and age, a denim shirt underneath a suit might as well be a bespoke shirt.
SHOP $38, amazon.com or wrangler.com
Who does affordable denim better than Wrangler?
I’ve gone into this before and made some enemies of opposing brand loyalists, but I don’t really care. I don’t like modern Levi’s anything. The cuts went slim, and the denim doesn’t feel substantial. If you’re holding two pieces of denim, one deadstock vintage, and one brand new, Wrangler is going to have the most similarities between the two. Maybe this is because the Wrangler customer is a more traditional type, maybe it’s because it was too lethargic on trend-chasing. Either way, I can walk into any workwear store and buy this shirt that has a heritage denim feel at a price that feels straight out of the 1980s.
Once a week, try replacing a stretch polo or performance dress shirt with a Wrangler rigid denim shirt. You don’t have to be a hick; I’m giving you a country pass. Just give it a go, and see how much better you feel when you’ve got on a shirt that’s hard as hell. Everyone else is being coddled by elastane and scrolling TikTok. You can barely bend your arms because you’re breaking in your shirt. Welcome to the resistance. After a few more weeks, you’ll never go back.
SHOP $38, amazon.com or wrangler.com
Photography by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
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