OGLING JAN-JAN VAN ESSCHE OVERSIZED SHIRTS

Images via Mohawk General Store

This Oversized Shirt from Jan-Jan van Essche costs 625 USD, but before you balk at that price, I should mention that Jan-Jan graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown of Antwerp, Belgium, winning the illustrious Dries van Noten Award in the process. If you're good enough to win an award with Dries' name on it, then you're good enough to sell six hundred dollar shirts. That's fashion, people. I don't make the rules. But, while many of us may not be able to afford this garment, all of us may ogle it freely. And ogle it we shall. It's made from 100% ramie, a thing I had to look up, which turns out to be a strong-yet-brittle fiber, derived from a flowering plant in the nettle family. Apparently ramie has been used for a full six thousand years, so I guess I'm the asshole for only learning of its existence yesterday. Although it is considered highly sustainable, extracting spinnable fiber from the plant is an arduous task, often involving a chemical degumming process that carries with it substantial environmental risks. All that is to say that you should take out a small personal loan, buy this shirt, and bore the fuck out of everyone you meet by trying to explain the entire ramie production chain to them ​-RB