THE JOURNAL

Say howdy to one of the season’s trends.
Perhaps it’s the imminent return of Westworld to our screens, but we couldn’t help but notice the number of Western shirts arriving in our latest What’s New drop. (What’s the collective noun for Western shirts? A yeehaw? A hoedown? A wickey-wild?) But, like the paranoid androids in the aforementioned show, self-awareness here is key. We don’t expect you to drive into this trend by just lassoing the nearest shirt. You’re an individual, and as such require an article that says something about you. And while there are other options, we’ve corralled together three of the varmints with a bit of character, with suggestions for what to wear them with, for those going straight to the wild, wild west.
For high-plains drifters
Meet Garth. That’s the handle that this shirt, which comes in a pleasingly worn-in dark indigo hue, goes by. When making it, we suspect Jean Shop were channelling one of Mr Garth Brooks (most likely given the context) or Garth from Wayne’s World, neither of whom fall into the category of what would be conventionally considered “cool” (nor does sticking the word “cool” in quote marks, but that’s another story). That pair’s namesake shirt, however, is as straight down the line as a square dance, but won't look out of place in the queue for that bleeding-edge restaurant in Shoreditch – unlike a square dance. Team it with a pair of Red Wing Shoes for a burly workwear-tinged look.
For Sundance Kids
When he was but a wee lad, visvim founder Mr Hiroki Nakamura was so enamoured with American denim that he made the pilgrimage west (although it would make more sense if he went east) from Japan to the US to pick up vintage finds in thrift shops. You can see by the yoke that this shirt is very much of the Old West tradition – and heavily bleached as if it has been left out to dry in Death Valley – but was actually painstakingly crafted back in Mr Nakamura’s homeland. Make like Mr Burt Reynolds with a pair of French-made Max Pittion 1970s-style aviators for the look of a man who rode into the desert and found himself.
For desperados
This shirt – a collaboration between Wacko Maria and Japanese vintage purveyor Wolf’s Head, which gets a shout-out on the reverse – sits somewhere between Mr Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (he was “the bad”) and Mr Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner. It is for outlaws, those who want to turn heads as they burst into a bar that suddenly falls silent. In those long-drawn-out moments when two sharp shooters size each other up, it is a statement shirt for men of few words. If the tone wasn’t a giveaway, a closer inspection reveals the contrast white piping to be double-headed snakes. Worn with this similarly black hat inspired by notable Hollywood badass Mr Dennis Hopper, this is an outfit that says you are not to be trifled with.
