Too old for a grandad shirt? By Adrian Clark
It becomes apparent as you grow older; dressing well has a great deal to do with being able to read a room and clothe yourself fittingly. Being overdressed can intimidate others and make you feel uncomfortable; being underdressed will (at best) lead to embarrassment, or, depending on where you are going, refusal of entry.
That’s why I loathe the ambiguity of the invitation to “dress casual/formal”. I am 52, and have worked in fashion for more years than I haven’t, and I still find this a minefield. Aside from the fact that “casual/formal” is a contradiction in terms, it’s so subjective. For example, is 20 per cent formal to 80 per cent casual allowed? Or should we always be aiming for 50/50?
It’s at times like these that the collarless shirt (we used to call them grandad shirts back in the day) suddenly comes to the fore. Smarter than a polo, more relaxed than a traditional collared shirt, it straddles the line between uptown and low-key with ease and, thanks to TV’s Peaky Blinders, is enjoying a retail resurgence. The origins of this workingclass hero are a bit foggy, but the most likely story is that blue-collar workers would cut the collars off their shirts because ties were forbidden to be worn around heavy factory machinery.
There are so many great grandad shirts (not greatgrandad shirts) on the high street at the moment, from supermarket
clothing lines such as TU at Sainsbury’s to niche heritage labels like RRL by Ralph Lauren, with slubby, lived-in linen-type fabrics proving popular (at H&M and Oliver Spencer). If the weather permits, Zara has a terrific short-sleeve version in sky-blue cotton pique. What to wear with a collarless shirt? There aren’t any real rights or wrongs, except the obvious: no jumpers – and no ties.