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The Flat Head


LFC4ever

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Yeah, there's a time and place for a spread collar, but this isn't one of them.

To be fair, sometimes you think a design up, draw it down and it seems like a good idea at the time, but then you get the sample product back and change your mind.

That fabric though! Would look incredible with a band collar shirt.

Edited by Iron Horse
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I like a spread collar if the second button down is quite high so it doesn't look to wide an opening, The new black flannel at R&H looks great.

Edited by Geeman
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I feel most of the Flat Head shirts have a weird fit with really wide shoulders and then a tight chest measurement and a tight bottom opening.  In almost every picture you can see how the shoulders tend to be too wide.  With that said I have two flannel work shirts that fit okay but neither fit as good as any of my Iron heart shirts.  The fabrics are amazing but I just wish the fits were better.  I'm not sure of this but maybe wide shoulders with a tight chest is a good fit for the average Japanese customer.  I'm 6'3" 200 lbs so I understand I'm not the target Flat Head customer.  With that said the shoulder measurements on both of my size 46 shirts are a little too wide for my liking.  I also have a UES Indigo Flannel shirt and a Nine Lives shirt that I feel fits better than the Flat Head shirts.  Do others feel the same way?

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Hi all, I'm currently in Japan and am thinking of picking up a pair of 3002. But I don't really like the new ultrasuede arcs. 

Justcurious if anyone has any experience removing the new arcs? They seem to be held down partially by the same stitching that holds the back pockets down.

If not does anyone have any fade pictures with the new arcs? Curious how they look with a faded pair. 

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12 hours ago, gazeboarder said:

I feel most of the Flat Head shirts have a weird fit with really wide shoulders and then a tight chest measurement and a tight bottom opening.  In almost every picture you can see how the shoulders tend to be too wide.  With that said I have two flannel work shirts that fit okay but neither fit as good as any of my Iron heart shirts.  The fabrics are amazing but I just wish the fits were better.  I'm not sure of this but maybe wide shoulders with a tight chest is a good fit for the average Japanese customer.  I'm 6'3" 200 lbs so I understand I'm not the target Flat Head customer.  With that said the shoulder measurements on both of my size 46 shirts are a little too wide for my liking.  I also have a UES Indigo Flannel shirt and a Nine Lives shirt that I feel fits better than the Flat Head shirts.  Do others feel the same way?

Average height in Japan is 5'7" and honestly if you're taller than that your selection is limited. This goes for a lot of Japanese brands. But yeah Iron heart and Nine lives would be able to fit more body types probably. As somebody who is 5'7" 145 lbs. all of Flat heads stuff fits me perfectly. I wear a 40 in their T shirts, and a 38 in their shirts, sometimes a 38R, which is 2" wider in the body (chest?). Maybe check out the "R" (Regular) size from flat head. None of the western dealers carry it but you can find some R shirts in 2nd.

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Flat Head founder Kobayashi is a small guy (something like 5'5") but has relatively broad shoulders for his height with a narrow waist. So basically their clothes are cut to fit him perfectly and look proportional (hence the short length, which looks great on him but weird on tall people.) He's got kinda unusual proportions and the fits don't scale up real great, IMO. Even in Japan I noticed that the shoulders look wide on most people.

If I was a Western retailer, I'd try to get them to make special shirts for me using their fabrics but with a different fit for western customers. So a native check western shirt would fit something like this in a size 40:

Chest 41" (w/ less taper in waist)

Shoulders 17"

Arm length 25.5"

Shirt length 29"

 

I would love to dress mostly in Flat Head stuff but sadly most of their clothes just don't fit me well, hence why I sold most of my formerly massive collection of FH gear, and just have a denim shirt, flannel shirt, down jacket, and two pairs of sneakers now. For shirts and jeans, 3Sixteen's stuff fits me best, and Rogue Territory's jackets are the best fit. Fit is really the most important to me these days, I don't find a huge difference in construction quality between these brands, and I've been quite happy with the fade from my 3Sixteen jeans. Biggest thing you miss out on by not going with Flat Head is the overall best denim out there (the 14.5 oz Pioneer denim) and the best shirting fabrics of any Amekaji brand.

The problem with Flat Head's Regular fit is that you get a wider chest, but the shoulders are even wider, the sleeves are a bit shorter, and there's still taper in the waist. It would fit a lot of problems if the Regular size was cut with no taper, a longer, sleeve, and longer hem.

Edited by Cold Summer
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The taper is what gets me.  I don't like anything snug around my mid section and its even worse if you sit down...just not comfortable.   I have a few shirts that are fine but for the most part, they don't work for me and it took me a while to finally accept this.  

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It just shows you thatnyou can’t make everything work for everybody. 

For me, flat head shirts fit way better than iron heart for instance. I feel iron heart has tiny shoulders, a huge chest, and too lon sleeves now. I also feel like the shirts are extremely long and they cover far more than my torso, which I feel  is a shirts only job. 

Almost everyone on here should be buying the WR though and I’m surprised western retailers don’t jump on those more. Flat head made their shirts even smaller and slimmer than they were in the past which is ridiculous... if I was a retailer I’d get only WR but nix the darts. 

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FYI, starting SS18 WR (wide) shirts are no longer being made.

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54 minutes ago, SmokeStackLightning said:

No western friendly shirts and ugly ultra suede arcs..... The "yup, I'm good on that" list continues with me unfortunately. 

The ugly arcs are only for the Japanese market, retailers in North America only sell them with the old stitched-on only arcs.

In terms of fit, you can't please everybody.  For me personally no flannel fits me as well as Flat Head and RJB flannels, it's like they were cut for me.  I'm ok with the slightly dropped shoulders, I've been wearing them for 15 years and have come to like it over those years.

Edited by kiya
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22 minutes ago, kiya said:

The ugly arcs are only for the Japanese market, retailers in North America only sell them with the old stitched-on only arcs.

In terms of fit, you can't please everybody.  For me personally no flannel fits me as well as Flat Head and RJB flannels, it's like they were cut for me.  I'm ok with the slightly dropped shoulders, I've been wearing them for 15 years and have come to like it over those years.

It's frustrating because the shirt fabrics are so cool, but they just don't fit me and I'm coming to that realization I guess. The wallets are out of this world still so I can hang onto that at least. 

Any plans to stock the 3005 with the normal overseas arcs Kiya? I was thinking of sizing up on that. The 3009 I got is great but impractical at the same time due to how I sized them and the pockets. 

Edited by SmokeStackLightning
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Yep after the past couple years I learned that, for me, fit is foremost and fabric second. I’m really happy that I have found plenty of flat head shirts that have both great fits and fabrics. In fact, i sold all my iron heart stuff because it didn’t fit well. 

Id probably do the same thing if I were you Kyle, although I think the body lengths are good in you and just the sleeves to short... but your denim shirt looks perfect!

Edited by itsbenhere
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13 hours ago, SmokeStackLightning said:

 

Any plans to stock the 3005 with the normal overseas arcs Kiya? I was thinking of sizing up on that. The 3009 I got is great but impractical at the same time due to how I sized them and the pockets. 

 

Yup, next production run of the 3005 should be done in the spring!

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The reason TFH sells shirts is that most people don't care about or cannot assess how a shirt (should) fit. Personally, I find the droopy shoulders look horrible. I have a couple TFH that fit reasonably well when I'm in good shape (not right now).  Everybody has to make their own choices. There's no arguing that TFH's shirt measurements are "wrong" for most people. Saying "the shirts fit me great; I've learned to not care about the droopy shoulders" is self contradictory.

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1 hour ago, JDelage said:

The reason TFH sells shirts is that most people don't care about or cannot assess how a shirt (should) fit. Personally, I find the droopy shoulders look horrible. I have a couple TFH that fit reasonably well when I'm in good shape (not right now).  Everybody has to make their own choices. There's no arguing that TFH's shirt measurements are "wrong" for most people. Saying "the shirts fit me great; I've learned to not care about the droopy shoulders" is self contradictory.

This is a little ridiculous.  I don't believe there is a proper way a shirt (or a pair of jeans for that matter) should fit.  We're not talking about tailored menswear here, we're talking about flannel shirts and jeans.  The moment we start applying traditional menswear/suiting rules to this is when it stops being fun.  

In the end what we talk about here in Superdenim is more "fashion" than most things represented on Saville Row whether or not anyone here would admit to it.  There are well known brands which built a reputation off creating a certain fit which was restrictive to some but perfect for others, where the silhouettes were polarizing to buyers.  Band Of Outsiders is a perfect example, they went from underground cult brand in the early days to a huge International brand, and the first three years was Style Forum users arguing about how their fits were way too slim or way too tapered in the mid-section, but they found their target audience and went with it.  It's hard to apply silhouette rules to a brand that's been doing something (successfully) for over 20 years.

Edited by kiya
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