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The Fascinating History and Timeless Versatility of the White Shirt

Today, a white shirt is the cornerstone of a basic wardrobe. It is like a rock on which to build your dressing style. And this is not insignificant or accidental. How we dress on a daily basis says a lot more about us than we realize.

A white button-down shirt has been in every woman’s wardrobe hero for years, and it’s not hard to see why. Combining with wide trousers or an elegant maxi-length skirt, when going on business or making the overall image more casual, wearing a shirt with jeans or wearing it everyday under a knitted jacket or sweater. The possibilities for white shirts are endless, as are their styles.

Classic cotton oxford shirt

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Borrowed from men oversize style shirt

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An easy-to-wear jersey shirt that does not require ironing

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Silk shirt with frills and puffy sleeves

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And remember: you can never have too many white shirts.

The fascinating history of the white shirt

The white shirt is a garment that has been at the center of countless important moments in the history of fashion, cinema and culture – but its beginnings in the history of women’s fashion can be traced back to before the French Revolution – in a portrait painted in 1783, Marie Antoinette poses in a ruffled cotton robe “de gaulle”, causing a scandal at the time.

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The dress-gown “de gaulle” was initiated by Marie Antoinette’s fashion minister Rose Bertin. It was meant to be an indoor dress made of white cotton.

The portrait, painted by Madame Vigée-Lebrun, showed the queen in a loose, billowing white blouse dress with minimal jewelry, a more subdued and relaxed ensemble than was usually seen in portraits of her day. The Queen’s decision to pose in cotton, a relatively cheap material compared to the finest silks more suited to royal clothing, was bold, even for a Queen.

Many historians note the enormous influence of this portrait of Marie Antoinette on the textile industry, promoting the cotton business. A royal’s choice to wear a white cotton blouse a few centuries ago contributed to the white shirt being such a dominant wardrobe staple today. But the white shirt as we know it now was still worn only by men until the 20th century, where for decades it was associated with wealth. It meant a gentleman – someone who didn’t do manual labor (where the shirt got dirty) and who could afford to do laundry often.

However, by the 1920s, designers, including Coco Chanel, had broken down gender and class boundaries, adopting a more relaxed and modern approach to women’s clothing, in some cases swapping skirts for trousers and corsets for men’s shirts, which helped introduce the white shirt into women’s fashion.

The first modern white shirts

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Shirts gained traction in the 1940s thanks to several influential women – Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich – who brought it into the spotlight.

In fact, it was in the next couple of decades that the white shirt featured some of the greatest movie moments from Holiday and Key Largo to one of Audrey Hepburn’s most memorable outfits of all time: a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a stand-up collar that she wore while filming with Gregory Peck in Roman holidays.

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During these decades, the white shirt, despite originally being men’s clothing, was generally much more associated with femininity than it was later. The shirt was often combined with a belt, never buttoned to the top. It was worn tucked into a skirt, paired with a feminine silk scarf tied around the neck.

The revival of the white shirt (70/80/90/2000)

It later gained a more androgynous reputation – worn by icons such as New York punk girl Patti Smith (who teamed it with a skinny tie);

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Diane Keaton in Alan Woody’s films (shirt with waistcoat); Kim Basinger (9 and a half weeks one of the first oversize shirts in the movie) and Uma Thurman who wore it with black pants in the movie Pulp Fiction. Julia Roberts wore it over a dress Pretty Woman and Angelina Jolie wore it Mr and Mrs Smith.

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On the “tongue”, the presence of a white shirt was especially significant in the nineties and later decades, when Calvin Klein and DKNY restrained minimalism reigned in the collections, which later became Jil Sander and Celine the main element and which continued to dominate in the following decade.

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The white shirt continued to be a staple not only in the fashion and film industries. Stars such as Caroline Bassett, daughter-in-law of the 35th President of the United States, made Kennedy’s loose white shirt part of their business “uniform”.

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Sharon Stone turned it red carpet-worthy when she arrived in it for the 1998 Oscars (pairing her husband’s Gap a shirt with her on it Vera Wang skirts), and since then these examples have been followed by many – Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, Victoria Beckham, Rihanna – it would be difficult not to name stylish women who would not have relied on a white shirt in public appearances.

The Modern Emergence of the White Shirt

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Its ability to dominate as a must-have item for decades is proof that the shirt may never go out of style. What makes it so special and durable?

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We will probably never get bored with a classic white shirt as it can be used in so many different ways. It goes well with a tuxedo, blue jeans, skirt, shorts, how can the dress be worn oversize white shirt. Part of the appeal of the white shirt, and therefore its ability to live on, is its versatility. A well-cut white shirt in good quality cotton or linen looks great with everything, whether it’s for business, dressy or casual.

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Solid cotton, knitwear, silk, puffy sleeves, exaggerated collars. If you are sure that you want to add a white shirt to your wardrobe (if you haven’t already), but you don’t know where to start, you need to consider your daily priorities before buying, and then it will be easier to understand whether it will be oversize boyfrienda shirt or classic Oxford style, it is possible that it will be asymmetrical femininity.

Ask your question to the NRA Lifestyle experts by sending it to e-mail: dzivesstils@nra.lv

2023-12-04 08:09:28
#important #part #basic #wardrobe

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