Attempting to create the best oversized T-shirts in the world

I have an obsession with t-shirts. Especially oversized t-shirts. And one of my goals in life is to create the best oversized tees in the world. And we almost did that last year. After working relentlessly for two years on creating the perfect oversized tee, we finally released the Pima Oversized Tee for my brand The Saint. 295 gsm of pure Pima cotton goodness. A silky soft fabric constructed beautifully with a silhouette that drapes elegantly. And this is a damn good t-shirt that I'm very proud of. But being the perfectionist that I am, I just had to ask, how can we make this better? And in order to answer this, we needed to take it back a notch. What does the perfect oversized tee need to have? Well, there are four key things. First of all, fabric. You simply cannot compromise on the quality of the fabric. For The Saint, one thing I knew for sure is that I didn't want any polyester or plastic-based fibers to be used. Which is a bit of a double-edged sword. Because first of all, it's way more cost effective to at least blend some polyester in. And two, polyester or viscose can really help to get a softer feel. So of course, what did my stubborn ass have to do? Get one of the most premium types of cotton made from long staple fibers, Pima cotton. Since our initial release, we actually looked at and compared this fabric with many, many others to potentially find a better one. But still, we weren't able to find anything that would rival it. Second, the weight and drape of the fabric. The type of fabric is one thing, but in order to make a great t-shirt, you also want to pay close attention to the weight of the fabric and how it drapes on the body once it's put together into a garment. This is one of the most important elements of a t-shirt for me. I just hate it when a t-shirt is too thin. It feels flimsy and oftentimes that also means it's a bit see-through. But then when you buy a heavyweight tee, that often comes with a harsher hand feel, especially after a few washes. And that can lead to a stiff silhouette which just looks terrible. So we tried various weights, but we found the perfect balance with this 295gsm buttery soft Pima cotton. It's heavy enough to maintain good structure when worn while still having a beautiful effortless drape. Third, the silhouette. My biggest pet peeve with oversized tees is when they're too long in the body with regular length sleeves. I think that looks unflattering on 95% of people. The perfect silhouette can vary from person to person, but for my personal taste, I'm very inspired by East Asian fashion and I love silhouettes that are more oversized in the width of the body and the sleeve length rather than in the length of the garment. So we went with a body length that's on the slightly shorter side and elongated the sleeves to end at or right below your elbow with dropped shoulders and a relaxed fit. Here's the XL version on my friend Joseph, the founder of Sol Studio, who I think wears it so well. The neckline is also extremely important and that's something that we've improved from our first iteration to this new one, along with some small refinements to the silhouette. But I'll get to that in a bit. And fourth, the construction. It's easy to get caught up in how the garment looks from the outside and not pay attention to the small details and the inner construction of the garment. That's why we hand-picked a factory specifically for our t-shirts that is specialized in making high-end t-shirts and that's actually the only product of our lineup that they manufacture. We work very closely with them to ensure that the construction of our tees, from the seams to the ribbing, is finished meticulously and that they're crafted to meet the highest quality standards. And after obsessing over these four things, the fabric, the weight and drape, the silhouette and the construction, well I guess that's five technically, but anyhow, we landed on not one, not two, but three incredible t-shirts. Let me introduce you our newest refined and perfected pieces. The first t-shirt release we have is of course our beloved and best-selling Pima oversized tee, refined and improved. We have the same silky soft fabric and carefully designed proportions, but we made some slight adjustments to the pattern and the construction of the neckline to allow for a better, neater fit around the neck and shoulders. The ribbing is also ever so slightly thicker by a few millimeters for a slightly more pronounced neckline and the sleeve length has been adjusted by two centimeters to further accentuate the intended proportions. But overall, if you were a fan of our Pima oversized tees last year, don't worry, you're not getting this completely different product. This is just a slightly refined, improved version. It's now available in slate, which is this beautiful gray color with a subtle hint of green and in our new white. Yes, because we wanted to change our shade of white from this pure optical white to an ever so slightly softer white, while still being white-white, not cream or like a vintage white. And I went through so many different swatches of white and obsessed over finding the perfect shade of white and we finally landed on what I think is the perfect shade, which we called Cloud. Our second piece is quite simply a long-sleeve version of the Pima oversized tee. I've been asked many times for a long-sleeve version, so here it is. Same fabric, same proportions in the body, just with longer sleeves meant to end below your wrist and above your fingers. We tried a cuffed version at first, but something about it just felt off, so we went with a clean open hem finish. It's also available in Cloud and Slate. And just for reference for sizing, I wear a size small in all of these items and I'm 5'7", but all of the size charts will be on the website when we launch, along with the model measurements of course. And finally, our third piece, which is a special one that I've been wanting to do for a long time. This is our heavy waffle tee. The thing is, most waffle t-shirts come in long-sleeve, are often made from polyester, and I always find them to be too light and flimsy. So I wanted to create one made from a premium heavyweight fabric that's also 100% cotton, no polyester, and with the same intentionally oversized proportions of our Pima t-shirt. My favorite little details on this piece is the collar, which we made without ribbing to have a cleaner finish, and the seamless armholes. Our first prototype looked like this, which is the normal pattern for our Pima oversized tee with drop shoulders and a standard armhole. But we didn't really like this separation here, which was breaking the pattern of the waffle. So instead of going for a traditional armhole seam, we tried fully removing that seam and adding one that goes from the higher shoulder point to the sleeve edge, which is also the natural fold when ironing the tee. This creates a really cool seamless look from the body to the sleeve with no disjoint in the waffle pattern. And I think the overseam on the sleeve actually adds a really nice touch when looking at it from the side. And I could not be happier with the result. These will be available in slate and snow, which is a slightly different shade of white than the cloud that we used for the Pima. And there you have it. Those are the three t-shirts we've created for The Saints in our obsessive pursuit of creating the best oversized tees possible. These will be releasing on Saturday, 20th of June at 1 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. UK time at thesaintstudio.com. I hope you will love these t-shirts as much as I do. I know I'm biased, but I truly think these t-shirts are very strong contenders to be some of the best oversized tees out there. But with that said, perfection is something you can chase but arguably never really attain. So our work is not done yet. And that's why our brand mission is the pursuit of refinement. We strive to always learn, refine, improve, and create new better pieces, whether it be t-shirts, knitwear, hoodies, or very soon tailored trousers and shirts. But I've said enough for now. I can't wait for you guys to try these pieces, and I hope they find a beautiful home in your wardrobe. See you on the 20th.