The Borrowed Boyfriend’s Shirt is Over

The classic button-up is a nondescript garment, so you’d be forgiven for not noticing, but women’s shirting has undergone a seismic shift. It's everywhere on the runways and, more importantly, on the rack. More brands are taking on the category from a woman’s point of view, applying beloved elements of classic men’s shirting – construction, quality, and, often for women, an oversized fit – to a woman’s body.

“You can steal a man’s shirt, but it has limitations. The sleeves are too long, the fit is a little off—it’s going to look like you borrowed a man’s shirt,” said Olivia Villanti, founder of Mexico City-based atelier Chava Studio.

It’s not just Chanel and Charvet–though their collaboration for Matthieu Blazy’s first collection has brought more women to the world of bespoke, said Lizandra Cardoni, a tailor at century-old shirtmaker Budd London. For fall, Sarah Burton went big on the category at Givenchy, showing dramatic cuffs and collars alongside some reverso versions. There were shirts without collars and collars without shirts at Fendi, and sharp points peaking out from behind vests at Schiaparelli. Resort highlights included Balenciaga’s button-up with a draw-string bottom capable of giving off a puff effect, and shirting with priestly high collars at The Row.

In turn, more women are cutting out the middle man: no “boyfriend” necessary for the “boyfriend shirt”

Despite the much-hyped “borrowed from the boys” fantasy, the boyish charm of a loose-fitting shirt from the men’s section means sacrificing polish, said Pip Durell, founder of the 8-year-old London-based shirting brand With Nothing Underneath. Often, with a man’s shirt, the sleeves are too long, and the shoulder width is wrong, said Melissa Ventosa Martin, founder of the New York-based label Old Stone Trade.

With Nothing Underneath – which saw sales double year-over-year – does a boyfriend shirt that sits off the shoulders, away from the body, and has a button placement that is more flattering over the bust. (Button position is something Cardoni often shifts for women because with a man’s shirt, “the button is never sitting in the position you need it to sit,” she said, either too high or too low.) Ventosa Martin collaborates with the atelier 100Hands on her own, slightly adjusting oversized boyfriend and tuxedo shirts.

More people are interested in how something is made now, rather than trends, she said, adding fuel to the search for shirting made with a savoir-faire approach. Cardoni, too, has noticed more women thinking about the quality of their garments and the fabrics they’re made in, chalking it up to years of festering “quiet luxury” conversation. The number of women attending its twice yearly trunk shows in New York, for example, has jumped.

The versatility of a perfect shirt is what’s appealing, said Trish Wescoat Pound, who started her five-year-old ready-to-wear line TWP out of love of a woman in an oversized men’s shirt and a perceived hole in the market for one that’s both “a workhorse and an investment piece.”

“It [gives] women one piece they could build an entire wardrobe around—dress it up, dress it down, wear it for years,” said Wescoat Pound.

A broader mood is pushing classic shirting to the fore, too.

“We’re in an age of nostalgia and familiarity. There’s so many unsettled feelings about the future that people are grasping at things that are tried and true,” said Lizzie Owens, designer of 6397, a New York-based essentials brand.