In praise of the crisp cotton shirt

This is my tribute to the crisp cotton button down shirt.

Under my bed I have an Ikea storage bag that’s filled with out of season clothing. At least that’s the theory. In practice it’s mostly filled with brand new, still in their packaging cotton shirts. There are also several pairs of jeans and a few tee shirts, but the cotton shirt predominates. There are plain ones, striped ones, gingham check and even a couple of liberty print pattern ones. I’ve just counted them… twenty-seven! That’s in addition to the seventeen hanging in my wardrobe and those currently somewhere in the laundry cycle. So why do I keep on buying them?

Most women, by the time they’ve reach a certain age, have established a style that they are comfortable with. For me this is a pair of straight or wide leg jeans, a cotton shirt, classic brogues or loafers and a hand knit jumper. The colour palette is black, white, blue and beige with an occasional pop of colour, usually supplied by the knitwear. Theoretically at least, I have established my own minimalist wardrobe ideal and shouldn’t need to shop much.

In practice though, if I find the perfect shirt, I buy two exactly the same. I do this just in case something happens to the original and I can’t replace it in the future. Who wants to lose perfection right? In reality this rarely happens as the perfect cotton shirt goes on for ever and never gets thrown away. The poor duplicate languishes forever under the bed waiting for its day.

There is something about the feel of a crisp cotton freshly ironed shirt on the skin that is for me, just perfect. A 100% cotton shirt is soft, absorbent and breathable. Its natural moisture wicking properties keep you cool and comfortable making them ideal hot weather wear. Over the summer I wear them almost every day in preference to a cotton tee. They are just so much lighter and cooler. They are also, in my opinion, more age appropriate in that the long sleeves cover my slightly saggy and wrinkly arms and can be rolled up to just below the elbows. I even love ironing them.

Classic, casual and effortless, the long sleeve shirt can be worn anywhere, for anything and always looks stylish. In 1999 style icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy famously wore a white button down shirt to a glamorous gala at Whitney Museum of American Art. The photos of her in this outfit still make the style pages today, exemplifying classic chic. Admittedly her shirt was silk rather than cotton, but I think the analogy still works. I would certainly wear a white pintucked tuxedo shirt, great earrings and wide black palazzo pants to a party instead of a dress.

You can buy cotton shirts with a wide range of collars, cuts and colours to suit everyone’s taste. Classic choices are of course white, stripe, check and spot. They never go out of fashion which makes them a good long term wardrobe investment.

I try to buy quality at a reasonable price and have bought a lot of mine recently from Uniqlo, particularly from their collaboration with Jil Sander (+J). A lot of the ones under my bed are from this range and bought on sale. The quality of the fabric, the cut and the workmanship are superb for the price. Unfortunately, this collaboration doesn’t seem to have been repeated this year, which is a shame. Uniqlo usually offer quality at a good price though, and are my first ‘go to’ shopping site. I also like COS and ME+EM. They’re more expensive but still affordable.

So, this is my eulogy to the crisp cotton shirt. Do you agree? Do you have a clothing item that you can’t stop buying? If so I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

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