Regular readers of our blog will no doubt realise that we have a weakness for classic clothes with a Japanese spin. Here’s another one: a shirt-meets-sweat-top combo by Tokyo-based label Uniform Experiment. As seen above, this is quite simply a shirt of striped cotton broadcloth atop the bottom half of a cotton sweat top. The sum of the uncomplicated parts leans toward the current obsession with athletic wear, yet the reference is not in your face. And that’s the beauty here: it’s wearable quirk. There’s also the likely reaction to donning this: “what kind of shirt is that?” And the rejoinder could be, “One with a split personality disorder!”

United Experiment is a label of the casual wear company Soph, which spawned the label Sophnet, a favourite of the lifestyle and culture magazine Monocle. Started by designer Hirofumi Kiyonaga in 1998, Sophnet has, since 2002 when the name was established, become a brand that produces with inputs from Japanese and American artists. United Experiment, the brother label, is cut from the same cloth, but with a younger, street-centred edge. Experimental, not quite, but united they are.

Uniform Experiment cotton pullover shirt, SGD460, is available at Surrender, Raffles Hotel Shopping Arcade. Photo collage: Just So