Most clothing sold online tells you the fibre content and nothing else. Two shirts can both be “100% cotton” and have almost nothing in common: one a 90 GSM voile that will be translucent in daylight, the other a 320 GSM twill that will stand up on its own. The fibre is the least interesting fact about a fabric.
So every product page here carries four numbers instead. Here is what they mean.
GSM, or weight
Grams per square metre. It is the single most useful number for predicting how a garment will feel and how it will hang. As a rough guide for shirting:
- 90 to 120 GSM: voile, fine poplin. Summer only. Will show what is underneath.
- 130 to 180 GSM: standard poplin and oxford. The everyday range.
- 200 to 300 GSM: twill, flannel, chambray. Holds a shape, works as a light layer.
- 300 GSM and above: overshirt territory. Structured enough to wear open over a tee.
The mill
We name the mill on every page. Not as provenance theatre, but because it is checkable. Arvind in Ahmedabad, Vardhman in Ludhiana, and a smaller weaver in Erode that supplies our linen. If a fabric you liked reappears in a later volume, the mill line tells you it is genuinely the same cloth and not a lookalike sourced cheaper.
Fit block
Three blocks, used consistently. Relaxed is cut with a boxy body and a dropped shoulder. Regular follows the body with room to move. Slim is close through the chest and waist without being restrictive. A medium in one is a medium in all three; only the shape changes, never the base measurement.
The full measurement tables are on the size guide.
Shrinkage
Every fabric is washed three times before it is approved, at 30 degrees on a domestic machine, and measured after each cycle. We publish the residual movement. Anything above two per cent gets pre-shrunk at the mill or dropped. This is the number most brands do not want to give you, and it is the one that decides whether the shirt still fits in a year.
What we do not use
No fabric with elastane in a woven shirt. It feels good in the changing room and fails at the elbows within two seasons. No garment-dyed pieces that crock onto lighter layers. No printed care labels that say “dry clean only” on cloth that plainly does not need it.
If you want the reasoning at length, the journal goes further into each of these.