Shirts<The Real McCoy's SILK RAYON OPEN COLLAR SHIRT ECRU

The SILK RAYON OPEN COLLAR SHIRT is a resort shirt made from a unique crepe rayon silk yarn which has been finished on a hatcho twisting machine.

The archetypal Open Collar shirt first gained popularity during the post-war recreation-boom of the 1950s. Vacationing emerged as a symbol of the middle class and ‘Resort’ wear was introduced as an aspirational alternative to the formal clothing worn while travelling in the first half of the 20th Century. Crafted from hatcho twisted cloth, the SILK RAYON OPEN COLLAR SHIRT embodies a laid back silhouette, reflective of its era and features coconut shell buttons and a single patch chest pocket.

Hatcho twisting yarn is a historic process that is unique to Japan, with its roots laying in the creation of fabrics for Furoshiki wrapping and Kimonos. The resulting fabric, known as chirimen or “shrunken surface,” is crafted using strongly twisted silk threads for weft yarn. While silk is the most common material, wools or synthetics can also be employed.

Weft boiling, a preparatory step for hatcho twisting, involves soaking raw yarns in hot water. The raw yarn's surface contains sericin, a protein that when boiled acts like glue, binding the aligned yarns together. This boiling process also imparts softness and suppleness to the yarn, facilitating the application of strong twisting.

During the hatcho twisting process, these weft threads are horizontally spun up to 3,000 or 4,000 times per meter. Such powerful twisting demands constant attention and moisture to ensure that such the twisting does not cause the fibres to break.

Gonyu marks the final step in producing weft yarns for chirimen, where hatcho twisted yarns and warp yarns are intricately twisted together. This crucial process in Gonyu determines the shape of the yarn, playing a pivotal role in defining the size and pattern of the creases of the cloth, also known as 'shibo’. If this step is not achieved with upmost precision, it can jeopardise the integrity of the 30 to 40 preceding steps.

During the refinement process where the sericin and impurities of the cloth are washed away, a step referred to as "seiren," the tightly twisted threads naturally try and unwind. This movement gives rise to the shibo texture.