TEE-TIME AT LANDS’ END

TEXT, VIVIAN G. KELLY
A good tee-shirt, like a good man, is hard to find. As you know, it can take YEARS, before you find "the one". I’ve agonized over the tee dilemma seemingly forever, and bounced faithlessly from brand to brand depending on what I was writing about or what was in the goodie bag at Fashion Week. Black and navy tees – the most necessary ones – were the worst.
I investigated the “sure thing” other editors swore by such as Calvin tees, Fruit of the Loom, and sort-of settled on J. Crew tees, but still had a roving eye.
The fit was right, but alas, the fabric is too tissue-like for my liking. Just last week, the search came to a grinding halt after we [tween Contributor, Juliette and I] attended the Lands’ End Fall 2010 Preview at Rockefeller Center. This was hands-down the funnest preview I've attended in years, because it was given to us by former MICHAEL KORS colleague, the lovely SUZANNE BRYANT, VP of Design. Suzanne's designer background shows loud and clear in the new LANDS' END CANVAS Collection, which we'll be posting about more in depth soon.
I loved the new CANVAS COLLECTION, which does-away with any ideas you may have had of Lands’ End being “for old ladies”, as one of our high school student friends remarked. [I went out of our way to correct her misconception by showing her the catalogue and she oohed and aahed her way through the pages, as I smirked on in satisfaction.] Unfortunately, CANVAS isn't yet at our local CT Sears, so we'll have to try it through the catalogue. Hopefully, we'll get the sizing right on the first go-round.

THE WINNING TEE IS: The Women's Modern 1x1 Rib Crew T-Shirt.
The following Saturday, I went to our local Sears with the intent of buying one tee and walked out with three. How could I not? They were three for $29 and then an extra 30% off. The only fly in the ointment was that Lands’ End does such a good job with sizing that Ihad to try a few sizes from the Petite and Regular lines to figure out what my size was [small – regular ie: size 6-8].

PERFORMANCE
Not only do the tees have heft – no nipple alert here, it's long enough, NOT boxy and washed beautifully. It came out of the dryer looking the same as before it went through the wash.

If you can't make it into Sears, hop onto www.landsend.com right away. The solid tees are currently on sale for $10 a pop, and the striped for $15.
If you're having trouble with sizing, call their amazing customer service at 800.963.4816