Skip to main content

Buck Mason Has Your New Favorite Tee for Summer

buck mason has your new favorite tee for summer 11
Image used with permission by copyright holder
A T-shirt’s just a T-shirt, right? Not according to the folks at Buck Mason, who are crafting what’s sure to be your new favorite tee for summer — along with a heck of a lot of other great menswear essentials.

And if you’re going to wear a T-shirt, you want it to be made with quality and care in mind. Buck Mason has you covered there, too. In fact, Buck Mason’s beginnings came from a place once associated with quality, craftsmanship and American industry — Cleveland, and a slew of abandoned factories, which inspired co-founders Sasha Koehn and Erik Schnakenberg to launch a brand that focuses on timeless garments made  in America in modern fits and fabrics — like its line of classic T-shirts.

Buck-mason-11
Image used with permission by copyright holder

“We didn’t want to be putting more filler out into the world,” co-founder Erik Schnakenberg said via email. “We wanted to create a brand that manufactures domestically, but that also produces value.”

Recommended Videos

It all comes together when the brand hones in on great style essentials done effortlessly, like its essential slub T-shirts in an array of neutral, easily wearable colors. The tees — and the brand’s other pieces, like its classic Oxfords and slim tan chinos — are sold direct to consumers, cutting out the middle markup that characterizes other retail brands. Buck Mason supplements this approach with shops in Venice and Silver Lake; those sunny locales are reflective of an easygoing approach that shines through in its product assortment.

Related: Our Guide to the Best Light Wash Denim

And the classic, simple collection plays off another deep-seated philosophy held by the brand — that of “design through reduction,” Koehn said.

“We aggregate, and subtract, and what’s left? The cut, the fabric, and the construction. Distillation — that’s how you make the best T-shirts, jeans, button­-ups and chinos in the world.”

The brand’s approach has certainly drawn lots of praise across the fashion community, but it’s their approach to basic, wearable staples that’s helped them progress. Schnakenberg says Buck Mason’s aim is to make “the classics better than the classics.”

Pieces like their stylish T-shirts make that argument quite succinctly, with style details like a rounded hem and slubby, textured fabrics and washes, all of which have proven popular with consumers. It’s the kind of tee that’s easily wearable under a lightweight blazer in spring and summer, or beneath a slim crewneck sweater when the weather turns south.

Buck-mason-2
Buck Mason

“Our collection is really for everyone,” Koehn said. “Our stuff is so understated that there’s room for interpretation. It’s clothing as a vessel — the guy is what’s important.” And learning about their consumer has yielded some key insights — namely, that he might like a stylish leather jacket to go along with his tee and chinos; in that regard, Buck Mason is releasing a moto jacket this fall.

Plus, the brand just revamped a full-size GMC Bluebird bus, converting the massive vehicle into a mobile shop that will hit the road soon as part of Buck Mason’s goal to “bring American-made products to America.”

In the meantime, starting out with a well-crafted, easily wearable slim tee from the brand surely wouldn’t go amiss.

Pick up more style tips and menswear news here.

Beau Hayhoe
Beau Hayhoe is a freelance men's style writer, consultant and PR pro based in Brooklyn. Beau's menswear and gear writing has…
Ariat wants to make you look like Rip with “Yellowstone” collection
Western Icon Teams with Western Television Phenomenon
Ariat x Yellowstone Man and Woman in Field

John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his team of people on the Dutton Ranch changed the world when they hit the screens. Not only were people fascinated by characters like Rip (Cole Hauser), Beth (Kelly Reilly), Kayce (Luke Grimes), and Jamie (Wes Bentley), but they may have been even more smitten with the wardrobe. Not many TV series can boast that they launched a full-blown fashion trend, but Yellowstone has done just that. Now, Western icon brand Ariat has teamed up with the series to develop a collection that will make you look like you belong on the back of a horse and, hopefully, not at the train station.

“Because Ariat is engrained in the Western communities that Yellowstone is based on, our clothing and boots have organically shown up on the show throughout the years," says Megan Iwersen, Ariat’s Chief Product Officer. "Now, with the Ariat x Yellowstone collaboration, Ariat is even more visible in the Yellowstone universe and is more accessible to those fans captivated by the American West. Johnetta helped us develop Western looks that both honor our heritage and deliver a modern aesthetic for anyone wanting to incorporate a bit of Western flair into their wardrobe.”
Not just inspired by "Yellowstone"

Read more
This is how often you should clean your suit for a polished look
Keep your tailored clothing top notch
Suit jackets hanging up next to each other

Suits are some of a man's oldest surviving wardrobe pieces. They have been the bread and butter of masculine elegance in one way or another for centuries, with the modern iteration filling our closets for the last 100 years. Since men started wearing evening ties under single and double-breasted jackets and defining the decades of the previous century, we have had to find ways to keep them up to par between wears.

Nowadays, things are different. How often do we need to take your suit in for a cleaning? Can we do it at home? How do we care of them in between? For tips on cleaning a suit, we’ve reached out to Gary Flynn, CEO at M. Dumas & Sons in Charleston, South Carolina, and Joe Mueller at Wildwood & Company in Portland, Oregon.

Read more
The new Roger Dubuis watch: A timepiece that draws inspiration from knights
An artistic watch with knights on the dial
Roger Dubuis watch

While some watches are popular for their movements, the Roger Dubuis watch has made ripples in the industry with its stylish dial. Instead of featuring hour markers on the watch, this new timepiece from Roger Dubuis has small miniatures which are considered to be more artistic than hour markers.

The good thing about this watch is this—each miniature version differs from the next. One look at the dial is enough to give you some insight into the effort that’s been put into the watch. Apparently, every knight has a unique element, so the brand spent a lot of time on minor details.

Read more