To tuck or not to tuck? The new shirt rules
HOW TO DRESS LIKE A GROWN UP
WITH the slight improvement in weather, I turn to the important issue of trans- seasonal dressing. what to do when a coat is too much, but sleeves are still required?
And this spring, that involves re-thinking the role of shirts in our wardrobes and, specifically, the question: To tuck or not to tuck?
why on earth would a grown woman leave her shirt hanging out, I hear you cry. But stay with me, because I bring tidings that the garment we all used to think of as an ‘over-shirt’ (in other words, a shirt designed to be worn hanging out) has been rehabilitated.
I’m talking about styles involving ties, tails, droppedfronts and all manner of boxy cuts, which mean tucking in is not an option. Once the preserve of the frump, for the first time this look has been upgraded to high- fashion. Visible shirt tails have become modern and sophisticated.
If you’d told me a couple of years ago that I’d be falling for a jolly nice over-shirt, I would have been insulted.
I’ve spent decades rejecting anything that could possibly be described as roomy. As far as I was concerned, a loose, untucked shirt brought with it every negative connotation about ‘letting yourself go’.
A baggy shirt hanging over the waistline indicated the start of a fast food-greased slippery slope to elastic-waisted middle age — a slope I swore I’d refuse to the bitter end.
NOwhere I am, middle-aged and keenly trailing my shirt tails behind me. what happened?
well, effectively, a few good women designers got together and told us it was OK to leave our shirts out this spring. That it doesn’t have to be a frump’s surrender to middle age, but a wearable look that carries you neatly from spring to summer — or summer into autumn.
Phoebe Philo of chic French label Celine is at the root of it. I got to know her when she was at Chloe a decade ago. Even back then, she was a fan of the Victorian and Edwardian working men’s collarless shirts and cotton men’s nightshirts she picked up at Portobello Market — I saw them hanging among the racks at her west London studio in the early 2000s.
Marriage and two babies later, she went to Celine and started laying down templates for a practical wardrobe that included many versions of those oversized shirts in plain or striped cotton and printed silk. They have been a permanent fixture in her collections ever since.
Stella McCartney dedicated part of her business to crisp, untucked shirts, too.
Then came Natasa Cagalj, creative director of emerging fashion label Ports 1961. Cagalj has turned the brand into a hot ticket, making it a hit with fashion editors everywhere.
Its latest catwalk show featured A-line shapes, crisp tunic styles and collarless shirts with rounded tails.
what all these designers have in common is that they are working women with children and lead as near ‘normal’ lives as fashion designers get.
Quietly, their influence has fanned out through the High Street — and for good reason. Once you start to regard a shirt as a kind of tunic, and not a slobby get-out, you open up a world of possibilities.
Boden’s long blue and white striped Boy Fit Shirt (£29.75) looks fantastic over jeans, while the Flared Sleeve design by Marks & Spencer (£39.50) is also a useful wardrobe stable.
Joseph’s Lyla shirt in cottonpoplin (£245, net-a-porter.com) has an asymmetric tie at the sleeve, giving styling options.
A bonus is the way so many of these designs come with extralong cuffs. They help cover hands — a strong plus if you’ve reached the age when you’re not all that thrilled with the sight of your own.
So how to wear this new generation of over- shirts? As long as the fabric is crisp and crease-free, an elongated shirt can cover most occasions.
I wear mine with heels and tailored trousers, with a blazer for day or under a tuxedo jacket for a party. The impression has to be that you’ve consciously chosen this look and love it.
In such small, incremental changes of habit lies the joy of fashion. And it has reminded me you should always be prepared to throw out your inner prejudices.
Being a grown-up means being aware of the fine line between sticking to what you know suits you, and being stuck.