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Mourning the Death of American Apparel? Try This.

We ask a lot of our basics. Ideally, they'd be simple and non-branded. They would fit perfectly to make us look sharp and nonchalant, not sloppy. They would be of the highest quality but wouldn't cost any more than they should. And if that seems like an unrealistic wishlist, then you haven't tried Basic Rights, the burgeoning menswear brand founded last year by Freddie Cowan, the lead guitarist of The Vaccines.

Why'd an English indie rocker want to make staples instead of flashy merch or some collaboration line of leather jackets? It's one of those classic entrepreneurial stories of "Can't find it? Make it yourself." After spending way too much money on Japanese brands reproducing classic sweats and other basics, he started resenting "the idea of paying $150 for a white T-shirt." So he started sweating the details, sourcing quality Italian and Japanese fabrics and tapping master tailor David Chambers, a fixture on Savile Row, to really hone in on the cut and fit of each piece. The end result? Clothes that are masculine and understated but just different enough from what everyone else is wearing.

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