Which is great. Everyone needs zany shirts.
But it is a bit like constantly eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It might taste great at the start, but after a while you feel pretty sick. You really should do it only occasionally.
These kind of shirts just don’t GO with anything. At best, it’s your basic, like jeans.
So there's that, but there is also no artistry to wearing a loud shirt really. You can't build an outfit around it.
When I discovered designing shirts online, again the same problem.
I tended to reach for all the dramatic contrasts and ridiculous settings
Bright button threads, strange internal cuff colours.
Exact same problem – you end up with a ridiculous creation that doesn’t get worn because it doesn’t go with anything except the most basic of additions.
I must have about 20 shirts that are either so gaudy that I can’t wear them in daylight or so patterned that they have to be worn almost universally with jeans or black trousers.
Now however, I feel like I’ve learned my lesson... this latest is a grand, but everyday classic in white with blue window pane check.
As a bit of added smartness, I went with cream buttons rather than simple white.
It’s now one of my favourite shirts and can be worn literally anytime. Even a blue tie could work.
There is an important lesson here and that is that smart consistency in shirts really can stand the test of time compared to pointless impulse “shiny new thing” purchases.
Now if you’ll excuse me I just need to go and make a paisley…