It’s rare that I get excited about a simple cotton shirt. But this one, by Marks and Spencer, is more than a shirt – it’s the shape of things to come.
Trends come and go, but if you really want to know fashion, and tune into how to look your most stylish, the thing to pay attention to above all else is shape and proportion. Or as we fashion people call it “silhouette”.
And that’s why this 100% cotton shirt - available either in white or a soft blue with white stripes - is here. It’s cut like a classic Oxford shirt at the collar, and through the sleeves and body, but unlike a traditional Oxford shirt, this sits just below the waist, squared-off in a straight line. This simple shape shift makes it as ridiculously easy to wear untucked as it is tucked.
And let’s face it, sometimes working out the best way to do ‘casually untucked’ is a faff that requires several minutes in front of a mirror deliberating what looks best.
Also, and this bit is not to overlooked, a cropped, boxy shape is one we will be seeing more of ever since it was introduced by Matthieu Blazy at Chanel last year. In one snip of his tailoring scissors (he cut up a classic jacket to achieve the shape) he created a silhouette we will see everywhere in the coming months.
With this shirt, M&S has done the same thing. It works because the cropped shape immediately modernises your whole outfit. Wear this shirt with your favourite blue jeans and they'll look and feel more current.
This shirt will work just as well with tailored shorts or linen trousers, but I especially like it with loose, airy balloon-leg trousers. The shorter length and crisp lines of the shirt will balance the volume of the trousers beautifully, giving the whole outfit polish.
With a smart design tweak, M&S has reinvented one of the hardest-working pieces in your wardrobe to fit the mood of fashion now, and they made it easier to wear and style, too.
