Wardrobe
Members
The white shirt, reconsidered
We wore twelve white shirts for a month to find what makes one worth owning.
Every list of wardrobe essentials begins with a white shirt. Few of them tell you which one. There are hundreds of white shirts, and most of them are wrong: too thin, too tight, too shiny. We spent a month wearing twelve of them to find what makes a white shirt worth owning.
The cloth
Start with the cloth, because it decides everything else. A good white shirt is made of cotton with a weight you can feel. Hold it to the light. If you can see your hand clearly through one layer, it is too thin, and it will show everything you wear under it.
There are three classic shirt cloths.
- Poplin is smooth, crisp and cool. It is the most formal.
- Oxford is thicker, with a slight texture. It is the most relaxed and the hardest-wearing.
- Twill has a fine diagonal line and a soft shine. It drapes well and creases less.
For one shirt to do everything, choose a poplin of medium weight. For a second, choose an Oxford.
