I was first exposed to "Oxford cloth" shirts in 1968. Two of these were purchased for me, and I wore them until each were literally threadbare in the early 1970s. For most of the eighties and nineties I favored canvas shirts, but rediscovered Oxford cloth about twenty years ago, and took to ordering these from "Land's End" in Wisconsin. Hmmm. Does the land end in Wisconsin? Not a coastal state last time I looked. Anyway, Sears purchased LE a while back, and for the first few years there were no discernible changes. Now, alas, the prices per shirt have gone way up and the durability of the fabric way down: shirts I have ordered under the new regime have begun to disintegrate after half a dozen trips to the commercial laundry.

Fortunately I took advantage, before the beancounters' agenda had entirely compromised LE's quality control, to order about four dozen shirts at a sale price back when these were still woven from durable cotton. Over half of these remain packaged, with the rest being swapped in as venerable samples gradually become too shabby for use at work. I'm happy to think that, the most recent purchases having all disintegrated by now, my older purchases will likely see me halfway to retirement and my newer and unpackaged Oxfords will maintain my dignity as DHS ordains stricter dress standards for its affiliated organs in the Santorum Administration beginning in 2017.

A damn shame, though, that Land's End, which used to sell decent clothing, now attaches the firm name to shoddy, sleazy, overpriced shit.

cordially,