Traumurlaub Malle Men's T-Shirt, Pictograms

A week on the island told in four small pictures

The motif narrates a journey and needs barely a word for it. Four grey squares stand side by side like signs in an airport: in the first an aeroplane lands, in the second a little figure raises a tankard, in the third it doubles over and gives everything back, in the fourth the aeroplane takes off again. The squares have rounded corners. Below them stands a single word, TRAUMURLAUB, exactly as wide as the row above.

A programme everybody recognises

Fly out, celebrate, suffer, fly home. Anyone who has spent a long weekend on the strip knows the order straight away. The island does have quiet bays and mountains too, so they say; the garment is not interested. It travels to the stag weekend, the skittles trip and every extended weekend out there.

What the word means

Traumurlaub is German for dream holiday, and Malle is the shorthand Germans use for Mallorca, which together make the caption rather more ironic than it first appears.

Shades and widths

The light grey sits on navy, burgundy, brown and black, of which the first and the last reach the widest two sizes while the other pair stop two stages earlier, and all four begin at the narrowest. The same motif is also carried as a neon vest in the shop.

How it is built

The cotton is ring-spun, which lays the yarn evenly and keeps the surface smooth; at 185 g/m² the cloth feels soft rather than flimsy under the hand, a quality a 30 degree wash preserves. Rib knit rings the round opening, with a sewn tape at the nape over the shoulder seam. The body runs right around in one piece with no lateral seams, the cut falls straight, and the sleeves end on the upper arm.