Come Hell or High Water, L.L.Bean's Chamois Shirt Is Always a Good Move
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SHOP $59.95, llbean.com
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I almost remember my first introduction to L.L.Bean's chamois shirt. I know the general contours of the story. I was right on the verge of adolescence and my dad, from whom I inherited at least some of my packrat tendencies, had a stash of old shirts that I was finally (again, almost) big enough to wear. So he passed them down to me. Among them were a few "shammy shirts," as he (and pretty much everyone else, including the team at Bean) calls them. Brushed cotton. Heavy. Warm. Cozy. Extremely "Dad" shirts, in the best possible way.
All this I remember, mostly, though the sharper edges of it have been worn down considerably over the years. Was there a blue-and-white check? A buffalo plaid? Does it even matter, honestly? That's the thing about garments that stand the test of time, both in design and actual make. You see 'em early on, and you don't fully appreciate them because young men are, by and large, obnoxious, and rarely appreciate the really great stuff when they get it. Then you get older and you buy your own and your brain cracks open just a bit and you realize: Holy shit! I remember this shirt. And damn, Dad was right.
Should you buy L.L.Bean's signature heavyweight shirt just because you might one day be able to dunk on the younger generation when it comes to your (relatively) youthful style? Nah. You should buy it because it's just that good. The potential dunking is a bonus.
It's the Platonic flannel shirt.
The chamois shirt dates way back in the Bean archive, developed more than 90 years ago by the actual L.L., Leon Leonwood Bean. (Great name? Great name.) And there's a reason this thing has stuck around for so long. It's versatile, for one thing. The brushed, heavyweight flannel is sturdy enough to stand in as a jacket on days that are merely brisk, but soft enough to serve as a normal shirt when it's truly cold. It's comfy, protective, and it invites all kinds of interpretations, from core colors like tan and navy to checks a-plenty. "Flannel" may be a stand-in for "plaid shirt" in a lot of guys' minds nowadays, but that just ain't right. Whether solid or patterned, this is flannel. This is the OG.
SHOP $59.95, llbean.com
You can wear it with everything.
Reading up on this history of L.L.Bean's designs in anticipation of Todd Snyder's team-up with the brand, I learned that some guys are downright confounded by the shammy shirt. They're not sure what to wear it with, or what vibe to go for. Do you need Bean boots? A beard? Functional knowledge of the trails in Acadia National Park? No, no, and no. None of those things will hurt, especially if you want to lean into an outdoorsy feel. But if you want to play around with it, a shammy shirt will look equally cool with wide-leg trousers and a mock-neck sweater, the sort of pieces that might be created by designers like Evan Kinori or Christophe Lemaire. Or you could throw one on with slim black jeans and a black tee, giving it a bit of a rocker vibe. Or, hell, just experiment. The shirt was designed for the woods, but it's become an "everywhere" garment in the ensuing almost-century.
It'll last (almost) forever.
There's a reason my dad was able to hand down those ferreted-away shirts all those years ago. L.L.Bean's flannel stands up to all kinds of abuse, and it wears and washes down to feel even better than it does new. That's why so many fans of the style hold onto their shirts for years (and, probably, why they occasionally get bent out of shape when Bean makes minor adjustments to the design that they only discover when they re-up after a long hiatus). Nothing lasts forever, of course. But these shirts come close. And that's better than I can say for...well, almost everything.
SHOP $59.95, llbean.com
Photography by Allie Holloway. Prop styling by Claire Tedaldi for Halley Resources.
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