Ruffled neckline shirt, £40
We all agree, I think, don’t we? that Alexa Chung’s pie crust frill shirt for M&S this year was an unmitigated disaster, BUT. Pie crust collars when done with restraint and sense are actually perfectly alright, if not even welcome. It just mustn’t tip over from pie crust to Elizabethan ruff.
So I rather fancy this frilled-neckline sleeveless blouse thingy from Stories. The CEO of Net a Porter when I met her – (I promised I’d stop mentioning this encounter but I can’t) -may or may not have been wearing a white, discreetly pie-crust collar shirt under a grey crewneck sweater. And it looked very lovely, modern and non-mad. God I really hope she doesn’t find out how fully I have dissected every part of her outfit and disseminated it here.
This Stories one looks quite normal (dare I say nice). It’s when they have the ruffles that it tips over into mad woman territory. The trouble is that it universally unflattering – if you have a long neck it cuts it in half, and if you have a short neck it makes you struggle to emerge from the top of it. Just. All. Wrong
Pie crust or no pie crust, I need a non-see-through, easy-care (preferably non-iron) white shirt. Too much to ask? As common as unicorns?
I’ve got a nice one from Baujken. Or J Crew are the Kings of this stuff