The white shirt speaks of formality without trying too hard and is making a comeback on the catwalk and on screen
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ictoria Beckham has positioned herself as a pop star, mother, perfumier, TikToker and fashion designer. But whatever job next month’s Netflix documentary focuses on – details are scant, but it’s thought the early October series will end at her Paris catwalk show – she will always be scrutinised over how she looks. How to temper that? Wear a plain white shirt.
The documentary poster released this week shows Beckham wearing a diamond tennis bracelet, open-collar white shirt – and nothing else. Last week, the Princess of Wales appeared in public at the Natural History Museum, also in a plain white shirt. Earlier this month, the Duchess of Sussex launched her Netflix series in a white shirt (one of seven in fact), and when Taylor Swift recently announced her new album she did so wearing a white shirt. Laura Dern wore hers twice at the Venice film festival, and the woman with the most enviable wardrobe in fashion – Sarah Jessica Parker – chose a billowing version to promote her role as Booker prize judge.
In a pleasing twist, Kate and Meghan’s shirts were from the same British brand, With Nothing Underneath, which has grown by 130% this year owing to a roaring trade in oversized three-figure poplin numbers. At the cheaper end, sales of white shirts shot up 33% this month at John Lewis. An open-back version is the big hit at Hush this week, while a more fitted version was among the bestsellers for the newly relaunched The White Company.
