MEMENTO MORI SILK SHIRT

“Memento mori” said the Latin philosophers, remember that you will die…so that you may live well.

The shirt model is "Arizona" with a bandit collar, double shell buttons at the cuff, and gathers at the yoke and sleeves.
The fabric is silk broadcloth -also known as popelin or Fuji silk- which has a lovely weight and drape, an airy warmth, and less shine than the usual habotai silk. It feels almost like cotton…only better!
Printed by hand using natural-dyes in Brooklyn, New York. Cut and sewn in the Garment District, New York.

This theme, also called vanitas, was often used in Western Art throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and it flourishes again in our pattern, in the form of a bunch of grapes in the process of desiccating. First full and flush with life, then dried up and shriveled till only the fruitless branch is left, the pattern repeats, like the succession of years, and on each side of the desiccating grapes, minute lettering reminds us lest we forget: memento mori, memento mori! Live well, consider your choices, act upon them.