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Cherchez l’homme: menswear-inspired shirts

— by Alyson Walsh

Breathless-Jean-Seberg-Pi

Today I’m discussing luxury shirts over at the FT’s How To Spend It blog. As part of the Cherchez l’homme feature I interviewed a couple of designers, including Nick Wakeman from tomboy chic label Studio Nicholson. Wakeman regularly looks to vintage menswear for inspiration and has been working on a collection of beautiful shirts for autumn.

I also mention some of my favourite women in men’s shirts moments: Jean Seberg in a striped cotton version in A Bout de Souffle, Patti Smith photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe on the cover of Horses and Helmut Newton’s iconic 1975 French Vogue picture of the Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking.

Granted the YSL shirt is more of a pussy bow blouse, but the designer used men’s tailoring techniques for women and that’s good enough for me. Wakeman told me one of her favourite fashion moments is this image of Coco Chanel with her friend Marthe Davelli the opera singer taken around 1931. ‘They’re both in menswear and look so effortless and strong because of what they’re wearing. It’s an enormously inspiring image for me.’

And when my computer starts behaving itself properly, I’ll have a picture of yours truly in a new Margaret Howell MHL shirt. You can read the full How To Spend IT article here.

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