The Ultimate: Denim Jacket

Insomuch as the denim jacket is a basic staple that lasts  many a fashion season, it could be tagged under 'Dress Your Life.' It is the perfect summery outerlayer. It pairs best with dresses and skirts - it has the fit and length that flatters supremely over a dress. When wearing with a dress you are also less likely to committ the cardinal sin of denim: you will almost never make the mistake of pairing, say, a blue denim bottom with a blue denim jacket.

Repeat after me, ladies: NO to the Canadian Tuxedo! (Not that there is anything wrong with Canada).

Basic rules of the denim jacket:
Say No:
-  say no to oversized and boxy
- say no to embellished, bedazzled, or be-laced
- say no to a different cut, moto, blazer, or trench in denim
- say no to denim vests

Say Yes:
- slim but not too curvy of a fit
- distressed, soft feel
- ends at natural waistline
- perfect blue: not too bright

I like, and own a black denim jacket. That said there is somethign utterly irresistable about the original item, that perfect piece of Americana - the blue denim jacket.

Here's a rundown of offers from various retailers:


DREAM:
1) Mother (nicely distressed quality, just the perfect amount):

**2) Velvet: (the most perfect dark wash,  lust!)

WISH:
1) Jcrew: 

WANT:
1) Gap:

The Ultimate: A Striped Top

Stripes are perfect. A pattern that almost anyone can carry off if done right (depending on orientation, gradation, etc.), from small to large. A pattern with a pedigree, a country, an accent – French, insouciant, boyish.

Like so:

And even, this, although it is from a wholly different opera:

My ‘collection’ contains a shelf of striped options – navy with a white stripe; black with a white stripe; blue and white seersucker stripes.. but nothing compares to the original – black stripe over a white field. The so called Breton shirt. 

Never mind that the pedigree and country of origin are almost certainly false. But then false lineages are even more fun than real ones. Yes, it harkens back to a sailor's uniform. Yes, the French navy had a pot in Brittany. So maybe. Two of my personal favorite striped shirts are Soviet Navy issue - my late grandfather gave them to me, many moons ago. The lighter one is threadbare and bleached, but it has such a perfect boxy cut.. and the warm one is indestructible. 

In any case, Coco is supposedly responsible for making this humble sailor's shirt an upper class staple, way back in the 1930s.   That's her in the first photo, cunningly pairing a stripe top with a polka dot dappled dog.. or so I would like to think. 

The perfect striped top of the moment is boxy - yes, like my Soviet one! - cut a bit looser on the body, with a dropped shoulder and tapering  sleeves.

N. and I tried on a fantastically cozy, knit specimen  by Max Mara. It was most definitely a DREAM, budget wise:

The French take on its own export, quite lovely, and at a tad lower price point, a WISH:

http://www.shoplesnouvelles.com/shop/tops-blouses/petit-bateau-white-navy-marine-stripe-tee.html

Another great option, from my favorite La Garconne, likewise a WISH:

This one, from Topshop, a slightly less canonical jersey, is however an easy  WANT:

Pair with these, if you want to go for a truly iconic look, and say Merci bien.

Which will it be? You know you want one... you can never have enough. 

The Ultimate: A Perfect White Button-Down Shirt

Take a men’s staple and make it your own.

No, this is hardly fashion news – Coco, yeah, the original one, made that principle the foundation of her line. Crisp, simple white shirts have been showing up on ladies ever since, to iconic results:

Even icons need to be updated, ladies. So:
What makes the ultimate white shirt of today?

The determining factors of the shirt are as follows:

Fabric  weight

Cut

Collar

No more and no less.   I strenuously object to chest pockets on women shirts – who with a bust needs that? I also vote for decently opaque color – this is not the garment to get nasty with.

Research:

I could not think of a better place to research this than La Garconne, a NY store that specializes in directional clothing, fashion that is stark and bold in its daring simplicity. The look of the moment for them requires a smaller pointed collar, straight and even boxy fit, light weight fabric – like so:

For me, however, that cut is problematic – you can only wear it loose, slung over a tight pencil skirt, teetering in ski high stilletoes.  Pair it with anything else and you look dowdy, unintentionally so.

Their other offerings, while nice, are too close to a blouse, a whole different species.  As in this:

Blouses can be easier on the wearer than the shirt – they are slouchier, require less posture, less control. But every now and then any career woman needs to exhibit strength, and for that a blouse is sadly insufficient. The ultimate white shirt you don when you need an armor – like a gladiator in a white shirt (Olivia Pope, I’m looking at you!). 

Recommendation:

Ultimate White Shirt:

But what to do for affordable white shirts, you may ask? Uniqlo. As in this one:

De Nimes

Surely there are worse ways for a city to be immortalized rather than partaking of a name of an item of clothing that is ubiquitous to the point of absolute necessity.  Although applied originally to the type of cloth, the word denim has come to be primarily associated with pants. That said, who can forget Britney & Justin in that atrocious head to toe denim?

For the sake of all that is precious to you, please stay away from the Canadian Tuxedo!

Warning heeded, lets venture bravely into the world or denim. NK asked about denim shirts, and seeing as these are early days and one wants to be a responsive blogger, here goes my take. As a side note denim shirts are often referred to by another type of fabric – chambray (colored, smooth and light fabric) and more often than not they are indeed fashioned out of a much lighter weight cloth. 

What makes a perfect denim shirt?

-          Slim fit

-          De-saturated hue

-          ABSOLUTELY no embroidery. Any embellishment on a denim shirt sends it straight into the world of Dallas (in its original iteration)- as illustrated handily by Barneys:

The two things that can vary therefore are button plackets and collar styles. Lets break it down and discuss:

Collars:

Since I cut my hair I’ve been avoiding traditional spread collars -

 - for fear of excessive – for me – gender bending. The aim is to look boyish but not masculine. Even with longer hair, however, I think there is something too American about the traditional collar and personally prefer alternatives. A peter pan collar, when rendered in other fabric can work for that 60s inspired, Twiggy look, but hard to pull off in denim. My preference and recommendation, you ask? A small mandarin collar – for an otherwise almost colar-less look. Somehow, the combination of denim and mandarin just works.

Button plackets:

Now that the collar debate has been settled, the button placket is easy. There are two options: Henley length and full length. Given the collar, I tend to lean towards the half length, resulting in a pull on, slightly blouse-ier cut. I suppose that the contradiction of a workman-like cloth with a dressier cut appeals to me.

And so, a post that originated with a rumination on JCrew ends with the same retailer. Yes, I still think that the best basic denim shirt is to be found there: 

COLLARLESS POPOVER IN INDIGO OXFORD

Pair it with colored jeans (NEVER blue) and your favorite chunky faux cocktail ring and you got yourself a hot little look that you will be able to work anywhere and any time (depending on heel height, bien sur!)

And it is on sale!

P. S. A timely illustration on how denim still can look tacky courtesy of Elle Mag: