L-A: As you may recall, I mentioned that my favourite part of Coco Avant Chanel was her Breton striped shirt. Sure it was an overall good movie, but I’m not kidding about how much I loved her shirt. It is possibly one of my favourite styles out there. I love it so much it gets it’s own post rather than getting lumped into a Favourite Friday.
To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Breton stripes until a Who What Wear email about the style landed in my inbox. Apparently it’s the style of shirt worn by fisherman in Brittany. All I know is that those fisherman have great style and if I had to have a work uniform, that’d be my first choice.
One of the things I enjoy about these shirts is how versatile they can be. For fall, I love to wear with them with a peacoat (natch. Navy is standard, but mine is a fuschia-ish colour) and jeans. In spring I like them with khakis and a pair of ballet flats. I also like them with a denim skirt. It seriously goes with just about anything (okay, maybe not quite. But it goes with a lot).
Like finding that perfect black dress or shoe, it is not always easy to find the perfect striped shirt. It is often imitated, but most of the time, it’s a sad not-quite-right version. The Who What Wear roundup gave me a few leads on where I could go to find these shirts, but it wasn’t enough. So I’ve done some internet window shopping on a hunt to find more. That means it polyvore-fun-time!
Not included in that roundup are two other sites I’ve since found that sell this shirt – one British and one French – and both are pretty much devoted to the French nautical look. I can get behind that.
I just wish there were more available in our city by the sea. I did find a reasonable facsimile at H&M and Joe Fresh (and bought both). And I actually stopped in my tracks one afternoon when I saw a navy one by Petit Bateau at Elsie’s Used Clothing on Queen Street. I’ll admit that I was maybe a little bit devastated to see that it was a very small size small. I hope one of you runs out to buy it, so I know that it has gone to a good home.
