A London brand that leads with fabric puts out a short-sleeve shirt built around a fil coupé jacquard weave. Whether that weave justifies $180 is the only question worth answering.
The Verdict
This is a considered piece for a specific occasion, not an all-purpose summer shirt. If you want texture and quiet visual interest without committing to a print, the Curzon delivers it at a price that is fair but not cheap.
The Make
The fabric is the story here, as it always is with Wax London. A viscose-blend base carries a fil coupé jacquard weave, which means the pattern is woven into the cloth rather than printed on top of it. The result is a subtle, tactile surface that reads differently in different light. Wax London adds appliqué detailing on top of that, which is either a nice extra layer of craft or one detail too many depending on your tolerance for decoration. The exact fibre split is not published, which is a real frustration at this price point. Viscose blends range from clammy and fragile to genuinely good-wearing, and you cannot tell from the label which kind you have until you are already wearing it on a hot afternoon.
The collar is a camp cut, the placket runs full-length with tonal buttons, and the body is cut slightly shorter than a standard shirt block. Interior construction details are not published. For $180, it would be reasonable to expect at least a note on where this was made or how the seams are finished.
The Fit
Relaxed, as the brand describes it, which here means room through the chest and shoulder without going shapeless. The shorter body block works well untucked, which is presumably the point. Sizing is true to size across the XS to XXL range, so if you are between sizes there is no obvious reason to size down.
The Context
Wax London sits between the fast fashion brands trying to look interesting and the mid-tier British labels charging twice as much for similar construction. The Curzon competes on fabric character, not on provenance or technical finishing. A comparable camp-collar shirt at this price from Corridor or Drake's will be better made and more transparent about where and how. What Wax London offers instead is a specific aesthetic at an accessible price, and for some buyers that is the right trade.
The shirt wears at a 5 out of 10 on the loud-to-subtle spectrum, which is to say: people who notice fabric will notice it, everyone else will see a plain ecru shirt. That is probably the right level of interest for a piece you want to wear more than once.
The Personal Note
I have not owned this one. The fil coupé construction is genuinely interesting, and the price does not feel unreasonable for what the brand is doing. What keeps me from recommending it without reservation is the missing information: no origin, no fibre split, no care instructions on the product page. Viscose demands careful washing and that detail being absent is a small but real gap in the purchase experience. Worth handling in-store if you have a Wax London near you.
