HOW TO GET WHITE RIGHT
The trickiest shade of spring and summer is due for a re‑evaluation. Stephen Doig gives his advice
Allow me to paint a vignette of the beleaguered life of a style journalist; the Monaco Grand Prix and a party aboard a yacht. Sounds like a scene from a Bond movie, but it was the dress code that had me stumped. “White nights” was the theme. Supremacist connotations aside, white is the great fallacy of summer dressing for men; a shimmering nirvana in the distance that’s never quite attainable. Women – as the Duchess of Sussex showed when she wore a white dress this week to present young Master Archie to the press – have various avenues to wearing white. Men, not so many.
As that party was proof; white shirts show up every sweat patch, linen shows every crumple and crease, and a possible splash of red wine on trousers has the potential for disaster.
In fashion terms, men wearing white can be divided into two categories: the elegant, sprezzatura style of Marcello Mastroianni – the La
Dolce Vita film director who epitomised Italian elegance in pristine white suiting; and the club-happy, Love
Island contingent in your tightest and whitest for Ibiza opening weekend.
I’m not knocking the latter – that I could be 19 again and fearless about sweat stains or paunches – but for most of us, the most accessible route to wearing white falls to the former. First, find a suitable place to wear it – formal summer events such as Henley, or continental sojourns that require a dressed-up wardrobe, for example.
Perhaps the best route is to break it down and offset its glare with other, more subtle tones. Benedict Cumberbatch at this week’s camp-themed
Met Gala looked suitably theatrical in an all-white ensemble by British tailoring label Labassa Woolfe but, for the rest of us, it runs the risk of looking panto. Take a tip from Cary Grant in To Catch
a Thief, looking raffish and debonair on the Côte d’azur in grey blazer and soft-fit, breezy white trousers. The proportions are key. Tight can show every lump and crinkle, so opt for straight-leg or relaxed cuts. Natural fabrics are essential – anything synthetic will add a nasty shine to the already-brash Daz glare.
Back to our Italian brothers and their knack for bello uomo style; the showgoers at Florentine men’s style fair Pitti Uomo, which happens every June, also demonstrated a certain panache for donning whites; white trousers offset with neat grandad shirts and gilets for a more utilitarian stance or – for the brave – white trench coats contrasted with olive and fawn shades to downplay the brilliance and look less space-age Gattaca. A sharp white blazer – images of George Clooney in Lake Como and Jude Law in the endlessly stylish The
Talented Mr Ripley – worn with an open neck, relaxed shirt and easy chinos takes the starchiness out of it and fits the Continental summer vibe nicely. Just add an Aperol Spritz but, for the love of God, don’t spill it.