Alexandra Shulman’s Notebook
Hunt for the perfect shirt I need to get down to a T
NOW, as spring is springing, thoughts inevitably return to the challenge of finding the perfect T-shirt. Already the owner of 37 T-shirts, this might be considered ridiculous but included in that number are only three I consider perfect. The rest are trial fodder or those whose days of perfection are long gone.
Perfection in any area is hard to come by but there’s something about the universality of this clothing that makes the search so compelling. Once found, this is a small but vital problem solved – until next year when wherever you’ve found your solution will have changed the shape of their tops.
A perfect T-shirt is oh so rare, and, unlike achieving the perfect macaroni cheese, there is unfortunately no recipe. The neckline has to be just so – for some not loose, for others not tight.
The correct, all-important sleeve length is entirely dependent on the shape of the wearer’s arms and, ditto, hip length. And the fabric must not make the fatal error of exposing the lines of the underpinnings beneath.
Lord Snowdon, ex-husband of Princess Margaret, once complained to me that seeing the back bulge from a woman’s bra under her T-shirt made him feel ill, and somehow I’ve never been able to feel quite the same about it.
My own T-shirt success stories have come from Cos, James Perse, Velvet and Gap. What you pay is what you get when it comes to Tshirts which might be why M&S somehow manages to get everything about them wrong. But you may disagree. It’s a personal thing, this perfect T-shirt. One thing, though, is for sure. Recommendations are a thankless task as they are in many areas – read on below.
It’s unwise to handy round a handyman
WINTER gloom hides all the cracks and stains around the home, while the brighter light unfortunately shows that what looked like a small issue in the hallway has, over months, turned into a gully.
The collective cry goes out, ‘does anybody know a good handyman?’. Handing over your treasured handyman contacts, though, is a fool’s game. If the connection is successful, when you later need their services, they will be busy working for the friend you’ve recommended them to. Alternatively, they are not happy with the handyman and you are blamed.
One person’s dream Josef is another’s nightmare. We often forgive their little foibles (such as poor time-keeping, endless chat, slightly inaccurate billing, an inability to return phone calls) because we like having them around. Our plumber, the saintly Phil, seems forever fixing our boiler but his bossiness is off the scale and hasn’t been appreciated by all. A friend recently recommended a favoured builder to one of her mates for a house renovation and now has to listen to daily bulletins on what a catastrophic job he’s doing. During the spring cleaning binge, the canny person keeps their handyman’s phone number to themselves. Passing it on will come to no good.
Nightlife? It’s like a return to the 70s
ONE reason why London’s nightlife is in a dire state is supposedly due to people, especially the young, drinking less alcohol.
The terrible twins of the pandemic and Brexit-induced staffing shortages have gone some way to shut many night-time joints but they don’t entirely account for the fact that London, once a clubbing centre of the world, frequently looks like it’s under curfew after midnight.
While my clubbing days are over, alcohol was never the chief driver to party on somewhere after midnight. That would have been the company – the hope of finding a new love or just hanging out with friends into the small hours.
The popularity of pubs isn’t to do with alcohol availability; you can drink a pint at home for less. It’s about getting out and being with others. Hunkering down with Deliveroo isn’t the same.
However, even the more determined night owls find it hard to discover places in London to be served after 10pm. Even the National Theatre restaurant finishes orders well before the final curtain. As for getting a drink near midnight – forget it. It’s back to the ’70s.
Giving magazine the kiss-of-Life, Karlie?
WHY supermodel Karlie Kloss and husband Joshua Kushner have decided to become magazine proprietors is not clear. Of all the ways to make money, magazineownership is not terribly reliable at the moment but the couple have bought Life, one of the 20th Century’s most famous titles, which had lain dormant for years.
It would be a neat circular solution to think that a clever model such as Kloss, having made a fortune out of her fashion career, was going to do her part in keeping magazines afloat but early indications are not too encouraging.
The first thing the pair did after buying i-D, one of the most influential UK style magazines, shortly after featuring Karlie on the last cover, was halt all print and digital publication under the always grim excuse of ‘restructuring’.
Glastonbury rocks as place of worship
I SPENT Easter in Somerset. The view out of the kitchen window was of splendid Glastonbury Tor, famous for its mythological and Arthurian resonance.
A few miles away was the magnificent Anglican Wells Cathedral. Just a hop, skip and a jump over a few fields we were on the site of the famous Glastonbury music festival. A perfect snapshot of the changing face of our landmarks of worship.