My Way with Functional Materials
vol.1 THE NORTH FACE PURPLE LABEL

Another hot summer is coming. Before that, there will be the rainy season. Just remembering that feeling of your clothes sticking to your skin when you get wet or sweat in the rain is enough to make you shudder. In recent years, many brands have turned to the functional material "COOLMAX® EcoMade" as a countermeasure against humidity, which can destroy the happy relationship between clothes and people. Why is this material chosen, and how is it incorporated into items? ...... This three-part series will explore these issues based on fashion visuals and testimonials from the people involved. In this first installment, we will look at The North Face Purple Label's oxford shirts.

Photo_Teruo Horikoshi
Styling_So Matsukawa
Hair&Make_Asahi Sano
Model_Gabi (West), Aloha (West), Vincent (EXILES), Dude
Text_Shinri Kobayashi
Illustration_Yoshifumi Takeda
Edit_Yuri Sudo

It's not the best, it's not the strongest, it's not the best, but "just right" may be the most difficult thing to find. This thought occurred to me when I saw this shirt from The North Face Purple Label.

The more you look at this shirt, the more you find the ingenious way to get it down in the "right" place.

For example, just the right amount of function and look. The shirts are not intended for an extreme environment, but for everyday wear that just feels good; in other words, they are intended to be both fashionable and functional, according to the brand's representative. In short, it is the right balance between fashion and the outdoors.

The method we took to achieve this was to use organic cotton for the warp and cotton and "COOLMAX® EcoMade" yarn for the weft. By doing so, even though the texture is cotton, it dries faster than cotton 100% and absorbs perspiration to give you a dry feeling. The result is a shirt that can be relied on in both the dreary rainy season and the sunny summer months.