I turned my Drake’s fun shirt into a funner shirt

I couldn’t go another day without one.

A few of my compatriots have been sporting these Drake’s fun shirts for at least a few months now, and every time I’ve seen one I’ve crept a little closer to the edge of buying.
I’ve liked the aesthetic of a fun shirt for as long as I can remember, and the origin story of the fun shirt (made from offcuts as practise for apprentice tailors) always appealed to me too.
They’re the kind of thing you can throw on to jazz up any outfit, from a pair of jeans to a suit.

The collar, colour placement and vibe of the Drake’s one – and probably a healthy dose of envy directed towards my chums who owned them – culminated in me finally pulling the trigger in the last archive sale.

It’s a well made, well finished shirt.
Seven colours in total.
It was to be my first Drake’s shirt, after having bought a couple of their linen overshirts.

I bought the 41cm collar size, correct for me to wear a tie without it buckling.
Per the measurements, the chest would fit well also, alongside the sleeve length.
The collar has a light interlining to help it roll nicely without collapsing.
I do think that given the heft of the fabric used, it could probably have been constructed with an unlined collar and the roll would have been just fine.

This being my first Drake’s shirt, I wasn’t prepared to contend with just how slim the cut was.
I could button it through the chest and abdomen, but the seat was not going to happen.
And it was tight.

You can see here that it was pretty tight across the front.

I got by in the short term by just leaving the buttons below my belt line undone, but it still wasn’t a particularly comfortable wear.

Thankfully, being a fun shirt, I could simply have extra cloth added to the front panels.
While the back panel was fine, the front panels both required extra room.
I thus decided to add some white oxford cloth from a shirt I never wore, turning this seven colour fun shirt into a fun shirt composed of a whopping eight colours!

Drakes Oxford Fun Shirt customised for 8 colours

It now fits comfortably everywhere, and I’m looking forward to wearing the life out of it in the next few years.
The climate here in Australia isn’t quite ready for chunky oxford shirting at the time of writing this, but expect to see it regularly on my IG fit pic diary regularly towards the middle of the year.