Thousand Lakes Plaid Washed Flannel Pearlsnap Shirt

Most flannel plaids come in rust, forest and a safe red. This one is the colour of a glacier lake in July: a bright teal ground, charcoal bars and clean white blocks. It is a loud plaid that still behaves itself with dark denim and a grey wool coat.

The cloth is where the work went. Wythe founder Peter Middleton came out of fabric development at Ralph Lauren, and it shows: every yarn is specified by size and shade, then the cotton is spun, dyed and woven at a family-owned mill. The colours and layouts come from hundreds of hours with vintage shirts and old black and white photographs, the flannels farmers, miners and loggers wore hard between the 1920s and the 1960s. The result feels broken in from the first button, without the scratch that gives flannel a bad name.

Buy your usual size, and size down one if you want it slimmer. It is cut with room to layer over a tee or a thermal, so check the flat measurements in the chart below before you decide.

Midweight means it works as a shirt in September and as an overshirt by November. We brought it in because a good plaid is hard to find.