A true wrinkle-free dress shirt.
—
I recently started wearing dress shirts again. I had such a casual lifestyle for so long I no longer owned a dress shirt. I picked up a few at places like TJ Maxx and I found some nice shirts for not a lot of money, but I soon realized one of the main reasons I hated dress shirts – dry cleaners! Each shirt might not have cost me a lot but each time I wore it, it cost me $3 to have it laundered. At $3 per wearing that adds up quickly.
When I think of a dress shirt you can throw in the washing machine, I think of something that is poor fitting and uncomfortable to wear. It turns out many were even toxic, having a coating that included formaldehyde. Ministry of Supply has changed my way of thinking. They’ve created clothing that fits well, performs well and looks good (well at least on me and probably you). The founders are true believers in science and innovation which is understandable when you find out they met at MIT.
Ministry has an expanding line of clothing including: dress shirts, pants, polos, sport jackets, sweaters and socks. They sent me over their Gemini dress shirt and Aviator pants.
Wearing the clothes was a joy. The material was indistinguishable from cotton although it’s a mix of cotton, polyester and spandex. I did a blind feel test with the Gemini and a pure cotton dress shirt and with my small sample group people either couldn’t tell the difference or picked the Gemini as the pure cotton shirt.
The big test for me was washing however. My main goal is to never go to the dry cleaners again.
The cleaning instructions are clear:
Machine Wash Cold
Tumble Dry Low
Wear to remove wrinkles
DO NOT dry clean
DO NOT hot iron
DO NOT press
Their Do Not’s are all the things I never want to do, so we’re on the same page. For the pants the only difference is to Hang Dry – another instruction I can handle.
I followed the instructions and even forgot the clothes in the dryer for a few hours and still everything came out great. I was so impressed with the shirt and pants that I’m excited about their whole line of clothing. Ministry of Supply has an online store and also two physical locations (one in Boston and one in San Francisco). When you order online the clothes come in packaged very nicely which is always an added bonus.
The clothes were supplied by Ministry of Supply, all the opinions are my own.