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Put your hand up if you’re reading this on a Saturday. Hi! OK, so: are you wearing a striped shirt? If the answer is yes, then please give yourself a round of applause because you are winning this fashion game. Not only have you cottoned on to striped shirts being cool right now, you have also correctly identified where they fit best into your wardrobe. Which is at the weekend.
On a Saturday morning, a boldly striped shirt does the job a Breton top did a few years ago. You can put it on with no fuss, with jeans and trainers and hoop earrings. Or maybe a skirt and boots and a blazer. It’s easy, no drama, and you feel completely comfortable but confident. I don’t know about you, but on a weekend morning it’s not just laziness that keeps me from making a big effort. I positively relish keeping it low key because getting dressed up gets my adrenaline going, when I really want to chill out. On the other hand, I also want to feel that if I bump into someone chic in the cinnamon bun queue I’m not going to need to hide.
Don’t feel bad if you missed the memo about a striped shirt now being a weekend piece. It is some turnaround. The striped shirt was interchangeable, for a long time, with the stuffed shirt. It was 1980s City boys in braces shouting into their brick phones. Quite a journey from there to being something you might wear to stand around in the playground with a coffee, but we are where we are.
To tether it to downtime, and to keep your blood pressure from spiking, you might want to steer clear of wearing the striped shirt with tailored trousers. Leave that one for Monday morning. I’m into it with a skirt: short-ish, I think, for definition, otherwise the silhouette gets too fuzzy. The striped shirt is also good with jeans. I think you should tuck it in to the waistband of the jeans, rather than leave it loose, which I know is very bossy of me. I’m going to give you two reasons why. One, a cotton shirt is such a fun thing to tuck – it billows in an aesthetically pleasing way, where a T-shirt just droops – that it’s a waste not to. Two, if the stripe is bold – and it should be because a scaled-up pattern rather than a sober pinstripe brings the right note of weekend cheer – then it can be a little overwhelming if there’s too much of it. Best keep it above-the-waist.
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If you are reading this at the weekend but not (yet) wearing a striped shirt, keep an eye out for it. You will find that a shirt you might have had pegged as office-to-regatta is now in organic delis and art galleries. Keep a look out for it too on Instagram, which is brilliant for people-watching when it’s too rainy or you are feeling too lazy to head out for actual people-watching. I realise that it is deeply unfashionable to say anything positive about social media, but Instagram is a good source of outfit ideas.
Of course, this good thing about Instagram – everyone looking gorgeous in great clothes – can also be a terrible thing about Instagram. A strategy I find useful here is to remember that the algorithm is built round what you engage with. So if someone pops up who makes you feel bad – envious or irritated or just lesser in some nonspecific way – then immediately unfollow. Do not like. Do not even linger. Hate-watching is a terrible idea because it teaches the platform to serve you more of the same.
A few final thoughts on the striped shirt. If you get cold, don’t add a V-neck sweater or cardigan; the diagonal of the neckline fights with the vertical stripe. A crew-neck jumper or wool vest will work much better. When it gets properly chilly, you could layer a dark fine-knit polo neck underneath. And it looks strangely good with white sunglasses. I discovered this on Instagram, but it’s true. Have fun with it. It’s the weekend, after all.
Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Sam McKnight and Ilia. Styling assistant: Sam Deaman. Model: Meja at Milk. Cap, stylist’s own. Shirt, £100, withnothingunderneath.com. Jeans, £87, arket.com. Belt, £125, jandmdavidson.com