Short Shrifted

Stopped into Johnson, a tiny LES boutique on Orchard Street, a few weeks ago for their sample sale. Kim Johnson, the designer, almost exclusively makes women’s clothing, but I was interested in a little footnote I’d seen in the sale notice in a magazine, something about fitted, retro men’s shirts. They only had a very small, limited selection of men’s short-sleeves, but all pretty cool. The Web site describes the collection as “a welcome return to the slim cuts of a bygone era, when fitted shirts were the norm for generations of American men.”

The fit: The short-sleeve is, indeed, slim, with narrow shoulders. Designed to be worn casually, untucked, they’re supposedly cut short. While they don’t suffer from being super long, they were probably designed for a slim man of the relatively un-short variety. Still, your torso length would probably decide whether you’d have to tuck or not. Square, 1950s dad on a fishing trip with the kids vs. hip, beatnik beach bum with a surf board tied to the roof of your woodie. They’re both good looks.

The Mr. Johnson line features “classic patterns of checks, stripes and solids, all utilizing the highest quality cottons and trimmings.” I’d say that was pretty accurate: They have all sorts of nice little details, down to a subtle, embroidered “J” below the bottom button. Johnson says she started making them because “my male friends canvas stores for shirts of a certain cut, from past decades, but it’s not impossible to create those shirts today, in better fabrics and updated styles.” The so-called Mr. Johnson line is truly a nod to Atomic Age fashion in style as well as construction — they seem sturdy enough to withstand an A-bomb blast.

The spring line is out now (short and long sleeves). Not sure how well the long-sleeves fit, but will try to check it out soon.

The cash-only sample sale offered the Mr. Johnson shirts for $80. Usually, they run in the mid-$100 range.

Link: Johnson

It had to be 1) blue, 2) slim fitting, and 3) 14.5 inches around the neck. Easy enough, right? I was looking for a sharp, button-down dress shirt for work and figured I’d make it easy on myself and go to a department store. But most department stores don’t stock much for short men. Expensive, urban department stores may offer many trendy designer clothes that are small, but wander into the formal menswear department and it’s slim pickin’s.

For the slight of build (or any “odd” size), the trick can often be to find a specialist. It’s what they do. There are a bunch of great shirtmakers I’ll talk about in future (Charles Tyrwhitt, e.g.). Today, we’re looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. I found the perfect, classic dress shirt right off the rack at Thomas Pink.

Thomas Pink’s Slim Fit line is extensive — it runs from pigeon to peacock. They have great traditional looks (your standard office blues and whites) as well as a lot of eye-popping colors and patterns in line with their English-dandy Jermyn Street heritage. And they commonly carry neck sizes down to a 14.5.

The Fit: The shirts look really proportional on most small men. The cut lives up to the name, so they don’t bunch or billow at the waist. Shoulders aren’t too wide. Sleeves could be a bit shorter, but the cuffs aren’t huge so shouldn’t fall past all but the boniest wrist. They can be somewhat long in the tail, but aren’t meant to be worn casually untucked, so that should be a non-issue. However, the extremely short could find this problematic. If that’s you, get it hemmed.

Just be warned: Thomas Pink is not cheap (Ramit, the scribe behind a great, down-to-earth personal-finance blog I read, was shocked by their prices). However, their stuff is just so damn beautiful and meant to last forever — so consider it an investment. Slim Fits run from $59 to $175 with most at the top end of the scale (the cheap ones trend towards, uh, zany is a nice way of putting it).

Link: Thomas Pink

I’m 5-foot-5, 125 pounds. If you’re anywhere in that neighborhood (that is, short and slim) there’s no better proof that the Clothing Gods don’t accept your kind than when you step into a dressing room and close the door behind you. Trying to buy clothes off the rack can be an exasperating experience for small men; it would be easy to conclude that the reason designers don’t make anything your size is because your body is just plain odd. You literally don’t fit in.

When it comes to clothing, for far too long short men have been short shrifted. But there are clothes out there that fit you. It’s just a question of tracking them down. That’s why I’m here. On Short Shrifted, I’ll be posting about designers, shops, tailoring and fitting tips for small guys — connecting you to the clothes and the style that best fit you.