Five Things #21 — All Cotton Everything, Including a Fruit of the Loom Japan Suit for $155

Along with Wakayama loopwheel tees from Standard & Strange, N.HOOLYWOOD x Champion’s “New Weave,” Corridor’s ribbed crewneck, and NOAH’s piqué pant for Thursday.

Fruit of the Loom Japan The Fruit Athletic Formal Suit

Hat tip to Highsnobiety for spotlighting a genuinely unexpected suiting move from Fruit of the Loom via its Japanese arm, teaming up with local vintage authority Keiji Kaneko on an all 12oz cotton suit that actually looks quite comfortable to wear. Behold the Fruit of the Loom Japan The Fruit Athletic Formal Suit!

This collaboration is special on so many levels. As Highsnobiety tells us,

I’m confident no tailor would recommend the cotton from the world’s most basic T-shirt. Good job Keiji Kaneko isn’t a tailor, then. The vintage store-owner, fashion buyer, and brains behind menswear label Foundour has collaborated with Fruit of the Loom to create a double-breasted suit jacket with slouchy double-pleated pants made entirely of cotton jersey typically reserved for tees.

The two suits are offered in traditional colors of navy and black, featuring broad lapels and styled with oxfords and polo shirts. However, these suave two-pieces, officially named “THE FRUIT ATHLETIC FORMAL SUIT,” are 12 oz single-jersey T-shirt fabric.

Available out of Japan for about $155, this collaboration builds on the single-breasted formal suits Kaneko has been refining with Fruit of the Loom Japan post-COVID. Let’s see where the next iteration takes us.

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Standard & Strange Wakayama Special Loopwheel T-Shirts

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I’m a sucker for loopwheel knits, and even more so when they’re done as specialty runs for small, opinionated shops. So when the guys at Standard & Strange shared their version, milled in Wakayama, Japan, I paid attention.

We’ve talked about loopwheel before, but this one deserves a closer look through their lens. This isn’t just another T-shirt drop: it’s a purpose-built piece woven on slow machines, low-tension knitting, and a fabric story that actually matters. Here’s how Standard & Strange framed the release.

Loopwheel tees can be tricky, with unexpected shrinkage or bodies that twist over time due to the lack of side seams. We used super long staple cotton, and pre-shrunk the shirts to eliminate those issues without removing any of the character that makes loopwheel jersey so charming. The combination of the gravity-fed, low-tension fabric and the super long staple cotton create a shirt that is soft and airy without being delicate.

Our new crewneck sweater was also designed to honor vintage styles while enhancing the product. We opted for a cut-and-sew approach rather than using a tubular body for this garment, which is part of our strategy to give each piece as much life as possible. Tubular bodies will twist and shrink over time much more than sewn panels, with little benefit other than aesthetic. The flatlock side seams adds stability to the garment without taking away comfort. The flatseamer sewing process gives a soft, stretchy, comfortable seam with very little bulk but requires quite a bit of skill on the part of the machinist, especially when sewing the complicated lines of our modified raglan sleeve.

Standard & Strange Wakayama Special Loopwheel T-Shirts are available now for $95.

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N.HOOLYWOOD x Champion“New Weave” Capsule Collection

Hat tip to Hypebeast for being early on the ninth installment of N.HOOLYWOOD’s ongoing capsule with Champion. Here we see real progression on the classic Reverse Weave, the very construction that made the American sportswear label a pillar for vintage heads and leisure purists alike, now pushed into a new visual identity under the direction of Daisuke Obana, who’s “spinning” things a bit differently.

From Hypebeast.

N.HOOLYWOOD and Champion have reunited for the ninth iteration of their ongoing “NEW WEAVE” capsule, continuing their experimental reconstruction of American athletic wear. Helmed by designer Daisuke Obana, an avid collector of vintage Champion pieces, the project reinterprets the brand’s iconic “Reverse Weave® manufacturing method through a modern, technical lens. This latest release evolves the series’ signature 3D cutting techniques by integrating a reversible specification that allows for two distinct visual identities within a single garment.

The washed out colors of the collection ride a little trend for this newsletter but after now an almost four year run, these are more and more becoming classic favorites for their leisure forward appeal.

Available through N.Hoolywood stores throughout Japan.

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Corridor Ribbed Cotton Crewneck Sweater

Brooklyn’s own Corridor continues to do what it does best: make genuinely good clothes for guys, the kind that inevitably end up borrowed by girlfriends and boyfriends alike. The appeal has always been the wearability simply while leaning into new textiles to modernize it all. I can see so many pieces in the new Corridor spring collection I see working in my own rotation.

The Corridor Ribbed Cotton Crewneck in natural and green are solid anchors, but I keep coming back to the rust, almost tomato-toned version teased in the lookbook and not yet up for sale. That’s the one that feels like the quiet standout.

For now, the natural and green will do. Find them at Corridor for $285, part of their Spring 2026 arrivals.

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NOAH NYC Pique Pant

The big news out of NOAH this past week is Brendan Babenzian returning full-time to the brand he founded, after an impressive five-year stretch pulling double duty as creative director of J.Crew Men’s. By most accounts, NOAH has been riding a strong growth wave, and the timing feels deliberate: bring the focus back home and double down on what you do best. You have to imagine the perspective and operational lessons from J.Crew only sharpen what comes next from Babenzian and NOAH.

In the meantime, this pair of all-cotton NOAH Pique Pants does the talking. Piqué, the textured knit most associated with classic polos, gives the pant its structure and subtle dimension. An elastic waist with drawcord keeps it relaxed. Easy, but considered.

The NOAH Pique Pants are available now for $198.

— Jeff

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