Dressing Tip: Wear Your Workshirt Off the Shoulder

Button down shirts: never old, never new.

Personally, I like to wear them oversize — boxy and kind of thick (so they don’t stick to my stomach) but casual too because I hate when they retain frustratingly rigid collars. My husband loves these because, and I quote, “they hold my neck up.” And here I thought bodies were supposed to do that!

I roll up the sleeves (often using a hugely handy cuffing trick from the ineffable Jenna Lyons) and like to tuck the shirt into high waist skinny pants. They provide the illusion that my lower stomach is either smaller than it actually is or accentuates the fact that though I look like I could be, I am not pregnant. This disparity tends to depend on what I ate for breakfast that morning.

I let the shirt peek out over my pants which makes me look vaguely disproportionate in a way that I really appreciate and then I live my life.

Or so I think I’m living my life — never have I felt as emasculated by the way in which I thought I had perfected the art of the oversize button down shirt as I did when I came upon this image, from New York Fashion Week, of a girl unbeknownst to me, giving the hot shoulder like no one has ever known warmth or clavicle bones before.

Will I try it? Yes. Probably simply by approximating this method — so that’s: unbutton the first, let’s say three, buttons of the shirt, pull it down from my back, unbutton the bottom three buttons, tie them together and pair with something high waist.

Will you? Here are some fancy shirts for your creative juice. The oldies from J. Crew should work just fine, too, though.

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