Recently I stumbled across the concept of getting dressed “shirt-first”, and it’s my new favourite thing. Please try it. A great shirt turns out to be a magic ingredient that pulls an outfit together in moments. Getting dressed shirt-first is a speedy, drama-free morning formula that makes you feel like an effortlessly competent grownup. It works, it feels fresh without being try-hard and, well, I just think you should give it a go.
The cotton button-down shirt that I used to think of as a Work Shirt is now a hero piece around which to build an outfit. In fashion speak: the Power Shirt is a thing. This is a non-trend trend too, which aims to look current rather than shoutily fashionable – like, say, a trenchcoat – and tends to hold steady for years without overexposure.
I’m not talking about the Perfect White Shirt. I know fashion people are supposed to worship these but I am too much of a magpie. I find them a bit boring, if I’m honest. Also, the perfect white shirt is only perfect until it creases or gets a smudge on it. I am constantly fidgeting, taking jumpers off and putting them on again, carrying too much stuff and in a rush. As a result, the just-pressed ideal lasts about five minutes. Clothes should make your day easier, not set up a boobytrap that might derail your day when you take a gulp of coffee.
A striped or coloured shirt is both lower-maintenance and has more main character energy than a white one. Win-win. A good striped shirt (a happy medium between pinstripe and deckchair) can cross the floor from work to weekend. It gives good Zoom, because even reduced to tile-size on screen it will sell you as bringing a pencils-sharpened energy to the meeting. Worn loose with the cuffs flipped back, it has a breezy weekend-morning vibe; unbuttoned, it can take you all the way to beach cover up.
Shirt-first dressing sets out a helpful set of guardrails for the rest of your outfit. It works with trousers, jeans or a structured skirt, which is just enough choice to give you options but not so many you get decision fatigue. When you need another layer on top, a good rule of thumb is that if it’s a structured piece like a blazer then you leave the collar of the shirt unbuttoned so that it shows a little skin and doesn’t look stuffy. With a soft top layer like a cardigan or V-neck sweater, then you button the shirt up to the top so that it lies flat and doesn’t look scruffy.
Arket does a quality striped poplin for £69. Reiss is more expensive – the Emma shirt is £148 – but worth a look because Reiss tends to use very good buttons and buttons are important on a shirt. A quick secondhand trawl might uncover a decades old Ralph Lauren buttondown, for a snip. But my top tip would be to treat yourself to a shirt from With Nothing Underneath, and have the cuffs monogrammed with your initials. This takes the price from £110 to £125 but makes you feel like royalty every time your wrists are in your line of vision – which, if you work on a keyboard, is a lot of the time.
A quick housekeeping note before you go: striped shirts need careful washing. Is it just me or is it incredibly annoying when the label on a multicoloured garment says “wash with similar colours”? Not helpful, guys! Which colours? My learnings in this department are: don’t buy a red-and-white striped shirt, because red dye is more likely to bleed than any other colour. (There is a reason why it’s always a red sock that ruins your white wash, not a black one.) With a blue or green stripe, you should be OK putting the shirt in your white wash at 30C. Ready to wear again tomorrow.
Hair and makeup: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management using Sculpted by Amy. Model: Kit at Body London. Shirt, jeans and loafers: all Boden. Grey knit: Marks & Spencer
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