A French shirt

“I have said you can have too many clothes. But I take that back where shirts are concerned. The shirt is a triumph of modern life, like the automobile or the web.

"It is easy to put on and take off, quick to wash and easy to store. Plus, shirts look great. A man should own as many shirts as he wishes - the more the better.

"I personally have so many shirts that I sometimes walk into my closet, pull one out, and think to myself, “Now where did that come from?” Having lots of shirts will allow you to surprise yourself with your own good taste.” Luciano Barbera

Whenever I see this shirt, bought in 2000 from Charvet on the place Vendome, I surprise myself at having let emotion over-rule my taste: I was still young, and blinded by the uncanny aura of the brand. 

I should have trusted my eyes: this shirt is a big bag of overpriced Gallic wrong. Beautiful fabric; but a small, too-mean collar with a cheap-looking shape that goes convex when worn, cramping the slimmest of ties; and the buttons have parallel stitching, leaving their centres naked; I hate that. Soft spread collars, cross-stitched buttons, God's in his heaven.

The day I bought this, I was caught out by bad packing and heavy rain, and wore a North Face parka with narrow APC jeans, combat boots, and a Turnbull & Asser candy-stripe shirt: a bizarre city-boy/hooligan/drug-dealer trifecta. According to my French then-girlfriend, I looked “a total plouc”, which might explain why the shop assistant was so reluctant to help.  Or maybe he didn’t like the shirts either.