Things I Heart: Breton Stripes

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.