Interview

My Shirt – stylish shirts with long sleeves

Trendy and well-tailored shirts with long sleeves have been a scarce commodity. Until now. My Lindström started her clothing brand a couple a years ago. One of her goals was to solve this problem and to design stylish clothes for men with long arms.
The lack of stylish and trendy shirts with long sleeves was something that caught My Lindström’s attention when she worked at the Hugo Boss stores in Stockholm.

“When I worked at the stores, many customers had this problem. I started to think about how I could meet this obvious need,” My says.

This became a guiding principle when she started her own clothing brand – My Shirt. It all started on a small scale.

“I started to take orders from friends and acquaintances who had problems finding shirts with sufficient sleeve length. The word got around, one after the other wanted their shirts tailored and I sewed them in my little apartment,” My says.

Even though My has moved her business out of her apartment and into a proper store and sells many more shirts today, she still highly values the personal contact with the customers. My wants her work to reflect the needs of her customers.

“The customers are more than welcome to offer their opinions about the clothes. I want to know what the customer wants; it’s tricky to figure it out all by myself. That is why I’m interested to hear different opinions and thoughts.”

The feedback has been very positive. My thinks that tall men with long arms is a group that often has been overlooked.

“There are not a lot of clothes available for that group. My shirts have been highly appreciated which is very rewarding. You can tell how happy many of them get.”

My Lindström founded My Shirt in 2009 after having studied fashion design, first in high school in Sweden, and after that at Polimoda Fashion School in Florence, Italy. The latter education was ended with an internship at Hugo Boss in Germany.

Today My Shirts’ shirts are sold in several shops in Stockholm, such as The Casbah, Gandpa and Chezt, but also in My’s own shop/showroom on Kungsholmen in Stockholm. Although the emphasis remains on shirts with long sleeves, the shirts are also available in ordinary sizes. My mainly focuses on shirts, but there are other garments as well. Longer sleeves are also needed when it comes to other garments.

“I am very interested of thin, fine sweaters and jackets for spring and fall with longer sleeves,” My says.

A long term goal is to develop three separate clothing lines within the company – Modern, Young and Luxury. My is also considering expanding her business beyond merely men’s clothing.

“I have had some dresses here before and I might eventually start selling women’s clothes. Like my

clothes for men, I would also sell women’s clothes with extra long sleeves. But at the moment I focus all my energy on men’s clothes.”

When it comes to sources of inspiration among other fashion designers, My especially mentions Paul Smith.

“He’s cool and does his own thing. I listened to him giving a speech at a fair and it was really inspiring to hear about his background; he’s done his own thing all along without any formal education in the beginning. He does those things other people don’t,” My says.

Another role model, but perhaps in another way, is Filippa K:

“She is a role model to me in brand building. Her clothes are nicely cut, feel ‘right’ all the time, the quality is high, the fit is good and the stores are nice. But when I design my own clothes I try to make them a little more edgy, even though I also want to make garments you keep for many years.”

My Shirt has shirts with a traditional cut, but there are often small edgy details. The rules for how men’s clothes ‘should’ be are stricter than those for women’s clothes. My sees this as a challenge.

“It’s fun to be able to break design rules. But I’ve noticed that guys are a little more tentative than girls to buy those types of clothes.”

Bow ties and tuxedo shirts in jeans fabric are examples of My’s experimental style and tendency to break rules.

But is there not a contradiction between, on the one hand, designing edgy clothes and, on the other, design clothes that feel right year after year?

“Not all of my clothes are edgy, just some. It’s a fine balancing act. But there are also some edgy clothes that you can keep for a long time,” My says.

She stresses the importance of her clothes being of high quality.

“Good quality is very important. I dislike this ‘the buy and toss’ attitude that is so common today. I don’t want to be a part of that. I want people to keep my clothes for a long time”.