The shirts that look good on everyone

Telegraph

26-02-2025

If you still haven't found a shirt to suit you, you might just be in luck right now. From casual linen boyfriend shapes to dress shirts like the one I'm wearing and sweeping silk cape backs, like the one above from La DoubleJ, shirts are having a moment. The best pack in lots of drama, even worn with simple black trousers.
It is, of course, very irritating to read about 'moments' when we're all supposed to be buying more thoughtfully, with everything in our wardrobes looking and feeling as good as possible for as long as possible. But a good shirt delivers on all fronts – you can't get more thoughtful, or classic, even when reinvented to suit 2020s fashion.
As is often the way, you needn't go too daring in your quest for the perfect shirt. Remember the famous US Vogue cover from 1992 with Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and seven other supermodels wearing simple white Gap shirts? In terms of turning the tanker that is SS Fashion around, it was the mother of all diversions, pivoting from the power shoulders and bling of the 1980s to something that was just as impactful, thanks to its sheer simplicity.
It was so successful that Anna Wintour repeated the trick in 2007. This time the models wore their white shirts with a variety of skirts, from ballgown pouffes (very Grace Kelly) and satin fishtails to figure-hugging pencils. You couldn't find a better demonstration of the shirt's ability to impose presence on the easiest outfits.
Expensive shirts – such as the Margaret Howell one above – tend to last a long time. On the other hand, I have 10-year-old linen Gap shirts still going strong. Consider every element of the shirt, from collar to fabric – a classic turn-down style may not suit you, but you might look fabulous in a Nehru, Peter Pan or ruffled collar.
Very thick linens, while lovely, can sometimes crease so badly they look like rags (scrunch a hem before you buy to see how it wrinkles). Tencel and viscose are breathable and more sustainable than polyesters, and also don't tend to crease as badly as cotton.
A good thermal vest will make them year rounders: this winter, I've gone back to M&S's Heatgen medium and maximum-strength long-sleeved undergarments, with their cosy, fluffy linings. Once you factor in the elastane, they're pretty synthetic, but so cosy and they seem to contain enough viscose not to be sweat baths.
Layer your shirts under knits or over tees. A couple of well-chosen gold pendants and a slick of lipstick and you're as polished as you'll almost ever need to be.