John Smedley
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I currently own about 20 Smedley tops, including Merino wool jumpers and long sleeve polos, Sea Island cotton jumpers, hoodies, polo shirts, t-shirts and a scarf. I've owned about another 20 too over the past 29 years. Probably my favourite clothing brand of all, hands down. In fact, I have a brand new Sea Island cotton jumper I need to sell…
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The Smedley factory shop next to the mill in Derbyshire is great for bargains. Sadly, the cuts didn't work for my frame but my brother came out of there with his office clothing sorted for several years.
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Was that from their 'Viking' collection Seul? Never suffered from that myself.
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Bough a polo shirt, started pillaging like mad after a couple of wears. No thanks
I thought you only pillaged beer shops.
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It's "pilling" Seul. You're not an eejit, just Beneluxian!
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Finally got one of these shirts
John Smedley’s Sea Island Cotton T-shirt Review:
Fabric: The shirt is a nice loose knit fabric that a nice loft to it and outstanding breathability for the summer. I would characterize the fabric as mid-weight.
– Cotton: Sea Island cotton is the #1 finest quality variety of cotton in the world. This (http://www.kaitoumen.co.jp/cont-en-02-02.html) explains the many unique qualities of sea island cotton.
Characteristics of Sea Island cotton:
– Extra long staple length
– High oil content
– Ultra fine fiber
– Natural sheen of silk
– High tensile strength
– Excellent color retention
– Hollow fiber
– Many twists in the fiber
– Great loftSea Island cotton is extremely rare and there are many who evoke the name without using the actual cotton. For example: clothing labeled “Sea Island Quality” is not actually Sea Island cotton, but rather is merely another lesser quality extra long staple cotton variety. *John Smedley’s cotton is authentic Sea Island Cotton.
– 2-ply: The yarns are spun from two separate strands which allows the yarn to be spun looser while maintaining strength. this adds more of a body and loft to the fabric.
– Color: There are 6 different colors of stripes, I love the stripes. The dyes are outstanding quality with unique and brilliant hues of blue and green. The fineness of the cotton fibers helps with colorfastness as well. I have already gotten some pretty enthusiastic complements in just the couple of days I’ve worn the shirt.
Construction: The shirt is knit in panels to the exact size, then expertly linked together by the skilled craftspeople at John Smedley. In addition to reducing fabric waste, this technique eliminates the need to wrap seams as there aren’t raw edges: sort of like the selvedge of knitwear.
And the stripes line up from the body to the sleeves.
Care/Washing: It is fairly common among high-end clothing to have to cold wash and hang dry or dry clean only, but one of the many advantages of Sea Island cotton is that it can be machine washed in hot water and tumbled dry warm. I personally just throw my sea island cotton shirts in with my other washing in hot water and they’ve retained the sheen, color, and softness outstandingly well.
Drawbacks/Random whining: The loose weave, though quite comfortable, seems to be more prone to catching on sharp objects such as the end of the zipper on my A2 bomber… The slightly hairy surface looks like it might starting pilling at some point. It's held up fine so far, but I'll be sure to update with how it ages.
Fit/Styling: This shirt very much reminds me of what a t-shirt would look like from the 50’s with bright colors, tons of stripes, fitted body, and loose sleeves which seem perfectly suited for summer activities.
Fit picture (size medium):
And under an A2:
Overall, this is an outstanding shirt, it’s in a totally different league from pretty much any other t-shirt. I love the playful use of color, stripes, fit, Sea Island cotton, ease of care, construction, attention to detail, and general ethos of John Smedley. And most importantly it's just a great shirt to wear and the one that I've found myself wearing the most since it arrived. -
Welcome to the world of Smedley! I currently own around 20-30 of their t-shirts and jumpers (plus a scarf) in Sea Island cotton and merino wool. I bought my first one (navy merino polo neck) as a schoolboy in 1986 and have been hooked ever since. Probably my favourite clothing brand.
