Most flannel shirts are fine until about the third wash, and then they go soft in the wrong way, the collar loses its shape, and the whole thing starts to look like something you’d wear to paint a fence. The difference between those and a properly made flannel comes down to the weight of the cloth, the quality of the brushing, and whether the construction was actually thought about. We’ve been looking specifically at shirts that hold their structure over time and work across more than one register. Worn open over a t-shirt is one thing. Buttoned up under a wool overshirt is another. The best flannel handles both without looking confused about what it is. Tartan or plain, earth tones or something with a bit more colour, the criteria has stayed the same throughout: does it feel like it was made to last, or made to sell. Everything here passed that test.