Double Double

Of all chambray shirts, I wear the perfect shirt in chambray polka dot the most. It's a chambray shirt and that's the current style gel top

(as opposed to the grey T-shirt of recent past, for example).

With subtle dots and no distressing, the shirt is dressy enough

for the office and makes a good play at pattern mixing

(worn here with the not-so-subtle cropped matchstick jean in indigo floral).

Thought I was smart and frugal picking up a back-up when the factory classic button-down shirt in dotted chambray went to sale

and an excellent extra percentage off came along.

The above pics show the side-by-side comparison fit-wise for

size 00 retail on the left and XXS factory on the right.

A close-up of the fabrics used.

Retail (lower left portion) is a brighter blue leaning toward royal

and has slightly larger dots. The factory (upper right)

is a grey blue material that's not as silky or drapey.

The fabric underbelly tells a good tale.

Retail dots are woven in while the factory prints its dots
(the print is on the surface and thus doesn't go through to the back of the material).

Here's what happens when they're washed and dried on hot.

With one sleeve down to show shrinkage and nope I don't iron

(worn here with the Liberty toothpick jean in June's Meadow floral).

Bottomline: while I like the factory version well enough for

its own merits, for me, it's not serving as a replacement/back-up

of the retail chambray polka dot shirt.

Darn. Because it would be a danged good deal.