SMJ Style Side Zip Shirt

There’s a new way of finding inspiration when buying clothes and that’s through Instagram. Perhaps people have been doing this for a while but I’ve only recently started to use it as a way of finding brands or specific items of clothing that I like the look of. The process is clumsy to be fair, for example: I had to follow a fashion blogger who liked an image > I looked at that image > then viewed the profile of the person who shared it > accessed the website URL from the profile – long winded right!?

Anyway I came across a brand called SMJ Style who are a German based company (the website is in English as well as German) and I really liked the look of their styles which were shared on their Instagram account. I was specifically after a red and black checked shirt which I had seen featured that had 2 metal zips down each of the sides. I visited the website and made the order (in EURO), the website said 5 days for shipping but I immediately got shipping confirmation and DHL tracking numbers the same day.

The shirt arrived within a week but I was a little disappointed that it came in an ASOS box and had no tissue paper or sealed bag inside – it didn’t feel like I’d spent €75 on a shirt, more that I’d just received a second hand eBay purchase. When I tried on the shirt I thought it looked really nice, the checkered pattern was sharp and the stitching well put together. The material used is 100% cotton and it does feel quite thick to touch, it will probably be too think for me to wear in the summer though… You could only buy one size which was M/L and the length was good, my only negative comment about the fit is that the collar is too tight; I’m a 15.5 and it felt quite restricting.

Overall this is a nice shirt from a relatively unknown brand, I think once they tighten up their packaging and delivery within the UK I’ll be using them a lot more.