Katie Cooper could never find a button-down she liked that actually fit. Women’s shirts were too feminine for her tastes, while men’s shirts made her 5-foot-3-inch frame look like a box. Her friends, many of them in the LGBTQ community, felt the same way.
But it wasn’t until she began researching creating her own, gender-neutral oxford that she noticed just how backward — and sexist — shirt design was.
“Women’s button-ups are pretty terrible,” says Cooper, whose new unisex shirt company, The Button Brigade, has raised over $31,000 on Kickstarter (exceeding its $27,000 goal). “They have bust darts, they gape at the chest and waist — but if you go to the men’s department nothing fits. I thought there had to be a better way.”
Cooper, a Memphis-based graphic designer with no previous experience in fashion, looked at how men’s shirts were constructed to come up with a happy medium: a shirt that actually fit, with a bit of tapering in the waist so it would flatter a wider range of bodies. (Button Brigade’s shirts will come in sizes XS to 4XL.)
For example, she says, she noticed that men’s shirts often had pleats in the back of the shirt on the shoulders to give the wearer a better range of motion. She decided to include the feature in her own shirts. “It’s really subtle and really only there if you need it.” Plus, she says, it gives women more room in the bust.
Another problem with shirts: both men’s and women’s options only have seven buttons up the front, which, unless you’re built like a rod, can make even the most staid white oxford look NSFW. Button Brigade’s shirts, therefore, have 10 buttons — “enough to help with gapping in the chest and waist,” says Cooper. “I don’t know why seven is the accepted number,” she adds. “I guess it’s just the way it’s been done. Something I’ve noticed about the fashion industry is that it’s very slow to progress.”
Probably the most shocking example of that is the fact that women’s and men’s shirts button on opposite sides.
Cooper found out through her research that the reason women’s shirts button on the left side instead of the right is that because in the good ol’ days, women — especially wealthy ones — didn’t dress themselves, so the buttons were put on the left side to make it easier for the person helping them.
“Men have always dressed themselves, so their buttons are on the right,” says Cooper. “So, I put mine on the right so people can button their shirts faster.”
Button Brigade’s shirts come in three solid chambrays and three prints (including a striped option, a pineapple print and a bird design). They’re manufactured in Chicago, and will retail for between $110-$115 at The Button Brigade, with 10 percent of profits going to LGBTQ organization OUTMemphis.
“My goal is that when people put these on, they’ll just feel more confident and [feel like they] don’t have to feel labeled by gender if they don’t want to be,” says Cooper.
