New York - Has Tony Melillo has created the perfect
T-shirt? For the 52-year-old designer’s loyal customers, the answer is not yes
but rather: Which one?
On Melillo's men’s rack, we find an $80 short-sleeved
T-shirt made of heathery slub cotton in a summery mood, another in a robust
pima cotton, plus a slinky number made of modal, a rayon made from
tree bark and arranged to drape with an under-the-radar sophistication.
“It’s supposed to mold to the body but not make you look
overtly sexy,” Melillo said earlier this week, as he gave a pre-opening tour of
his first stand-alone store on Bleecker Street in Manhattan. “We make cozy
clothes,” he added, then repeated his creative mantra: “Fit, feel,
relaxed elegance.” It could have served as a mission statement for
the T-shirt at large and as a checklist for anyone in the market to buy
one.
Melillo’s twin reputations for excellence and obsession
in this arena date to the 1990s, when he founded the menswear line Nova USA and
became a cult hero to a constituency bewitched by the softness and suavity of
his tees. They were cemented in 2012 when, after nine months of work to design
platonic ideals of the tee, he launched ATM by Anthony Thomas Melillo as an
exclusive offering of Barneys New York.
The quest for excellence necessitated opening a
manufacturing center in Peru, where artisans were spinning some of
the world’s most-enviable cotton before the Incan Empire. “It’s the water
quality,” Melillo said. “It’s a much harder water that makes a much softer
cotton.”
Buoyed by rave reviews during two and half years at
Barneys, Melillo expanded his line to include a range of casual wear and
widened his market to such shops as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. His
ambitions now include designing all the furniture in both the new Bleecker
Street shop and an East Hampton, NY, shop due to open by Memorial
Day.
Curiously, it’s more difficult to to make a
solid, basic tee than it is to design a garment loaded with fancy
distractions. Because the distance between interior structure and external
adornment is a difference of millimeters, anyone trying his hand at this iconic
garment quickly comes to realize that doing so is “actually more complicated
than a bunch of ornament.” Melillo’s trick is to make things look easy. “The
internal building,” he said, “is the drape, the hand-feel, the length, the
right neckline.”
He is a stickler, for instance, regarding a hemline that
hits about an inch below the belt—the Goldilocks Zone between the
short-waisted, high-fashion tees of yore (“Gucci used to do them right at the
belt”) and the Rick Owens flow of hip streetwear (“which is fine”).
Likewise, arriving at his ideal neckline was a matter of
making contemporary calibration: “In a casual world, I don’t want a tight
neck.” For an example of Melillo’s commitment to delivering a consistently
excellent feel, consider this: There are, in all Peru, six of the old machines
capable of making the ribbed micromodal fabric used in some of ATM’s women’s
garments. Melillo bought them all.
He is reasserting his presence in what happens to be
a time of T-shirt tumult. The semi-obsessive T-shirt consumer has been losing
sleep recently with the acquisition of American Apparel’s brand and
manufacturing equipment (though not its stores) by Canadian company Gildan.
More of than a few of us grew to rely on American Apparel’s wares, made
since 1997 at a decent price in Los Angeles. Some are stockpiling these
consummate, everyday basics (Happy hoarding to you!) Others find that the
sturdy snuggliness of Uniqlo’s Supima crewneck delivers good comfort for
value.
Others may have decided that these uncertain times call
for sure-thing tees. If ATM doesn’t ring your bell, one of these alternatives
will.
Vince
Made in Peru, this slub-knit crew neck is superbly sleek
and nonetheless substantial. $65 at bloomingdales.com
A.P.C.
While the model called the Jimmy boasts the same
safe-but-cool body length as Melillo’s shirt, it is cut to feature, not
immodestly, an additional inch of bicep. $95 for this flecked grey number at
A.P.C. stores
James Perse
The lightweight jersey crew neck boasts a creamy texture
and a roomy fit. Our sales assistant advised that it stretches, too, so
consider sizing down. $60 at jamesperse.com
Rag &
Bone
Pushing a Melillo-esque standard for rigorous minimalism to
the edge of decoration, the Owen pocket tee in heathered jersey features
contrast stitching at the side seams and a further seam at the spine. $135 at
eastdane.com