Denim shirt from LOFT (left), Chloe double denim look as seen on Vogue.com (right)
It feels horribly flippant to be writing about clothes while all this mayhem surrounds us in the UK, but a girl still has to get dressed in the morning and with the weird hot/cold weather we’ve been getting currently, it’s been challenging.
Which brings us to shirts and to (deep breath) double denim. This is a trend Vogue told us was ‘ok’ a whole year ago but we’ve rather steered away from as it conjured up horror pictures in our heads of the snow washed and over tight boxy jean jackets and stiff denim shirts (tucked firmly into high waist jeans) experienced in the mid 80s.
But a year on and we’ve replaced those images with nicer ones such as the Chloe spring summer 2010 one above and we’ve seen it worn by some of our more advanced contemporaries who’ve made it look very wearable.
The key to success (assuming everyone already has jeans) is the shirt, which needs to be lighter and paler than your bottom half to add contrast. It works best if you vary the colour and texture of your indigo pieces and I like the ‘done up to the top button’ styling detail seen above, which brings me to the rather lovely shirt I found in Loft this week. It is made of a very light, double-faced cotton muslin that I would call more chambray than denim, being a pale shade of indigo and a plain weave fabric (denim really is a twill weave). The fabric is gorgeous quality and perfect for the current variable summer weather. Tucked into darker jeans (nothing too tight or skinny, boyfriend-baggy look best, worn slightly drop-waisted with a good belt) it’s a great look. For anyone wanting to leave it un-tucked, it is nicely finished with a shirt-style hem.
The other reason it is worth a try, is that it is currently just £42 in the sale (from the shops only sadly, the sale stuff doesn’t seem to be on the website). You’ll need to get your skates on if you want one, as there is only a week or so left of sale time, but I reckon if this weather keeps up it will have earned it’s keep by the end of August.
Two comments really: that Loft shirt is absolutely lovely, what a great find. As for the Chloe shot – absolutley awful, flippin’ horrid.
I’m convinced that every now and then designers just throw some styles in as a joke to see how far they can test how customers – this shot is one of those (in my mind!)
Jude, you are wrong, it is lovely,I appreciate that you are a designer and I am not, but I’ve never let missing qualifications stop me opining before…. I admit the patched knees ( or whatever they are) on the jeans are a step too far, but I really like the rest of it, I love the slouchy fit on the trousers too. What don’t you like about it? Ax
I agree the silhouette is lovely (the slouchy trousers and mannish shirt are virtually my weekend wardrobe), but its the cut-about patchy look that, for me, give it a ‘Play School presenter’ look that I really don’t like (part of that could be down to my 26″ inside leg measurement that make me avoid any horizontal seams across the leg!) and maybe I’m just getting a bit less adventurous in my old age. But I do love the Loft chambray shirt with the tiny poppers – much more my style!
Play school presenter…love it and I see where you are coming from. I’m wear testing my shirt today (Crystal Palace Fair) so will let you know how I get on. A
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