Is there a more versatile garment in your wardrobe than the shirt? You'd be hard pressed to find a more trans-seasonal garment than the collar and cuffs, a garment better suited to straddling smart and casual, a garment with more fabric or colour options, or one that has better stood the style test of time.
You should have guessed by now that we love shirts. The diversity of collar styles that we create at Oliver Spencer offers myriad ways to way this classic stalwart of menswear, but more than that, this season we have crafted many of our shirt styles in incredibly soft fabrics that really lend themselves to being worn casually, especially at home. The soft handles of our brushed cotton shirts feel more like the sumptuous jersey fabrics of loungewear than they do traditional shirting, and can be dressed up or dressed down depending on the situation.
There's no better context for them than right now, as many of us find ourselves working from home, conducting our jobs through video calls and online meet-ups. They have the feel and comfort of luxury loungewear, while still conforming to the classic tenets of shirting, guaranteeing you'll look the part in front of your boss. They're great layering pieces too - the soft collar construction can be popped up from beneath a sweatshirt or cardigan for a preppy look or worn down beneath a softly tailored blazer for a more professional aesthetic. Either way, formality never eats into comfort.
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Brook Shirt Kildale |
Brook Shirt |
Brook Shirt Mersey |
This season, our shirts come in four distinct collar styles:
The New York Special: a short classic spread collar with a soft construction. The Becker style in a navy, red and beige check is one of our favourite garments of the season. The nap on the brushed cotton is soft soft, it feels like merino wool.
The Grandad Collar: effectively a collarless shirt riffing on the original Nehru collar. This is a fantastic style for taking the formal edge off tailoring, or as a laid-back layer with modern workwear silhouettes. Our indigo-dyed Kildale version has a blue hue that works beautifully with jeans for a casual tonal look.
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New York Special Shirt |
New York Special |
New York Special |
The Brook: Our version of the traditional button down, shorter than the classic OCBD. The Brook has a more preppy feel to it than the other styles so it's great worn below a crewneck knit or cardigan. To add some textural interest to your wardrobe, our micro-cord Brook shirts are just the ticket.
The Clerkenwell Tab: The Clerkenwell is a small, neat collar featuring a tab fastening. When fastened, this covers the top button. If you prefer, you can leave it unbuttoned; it can be concealed under the collar or left loose for a more casual look. If you like to wear a lot of black clothing, then the Markham white style provides a really nice monochromatic contrast.
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Treviscoe Shirt |
Treviscoe Shirt |
Milford Jacket |
Overshirts and Shackets
We've also created a number of overshirts and shackets, which are slightly more robust than the average shirt, making them perfect for autumn layering. The Treviscoe style is our overshirt option, and comes in seven different styles this season, from a soft micro cord to sumptuous brushed cotton. For something with a bit more structure and a cropped finish, you'll want to invest in a shacket, which comes in the guise of our Milford jacket. This lightweight silhouette is super versatile, being able to be worn as outerwear in the autumn, while in the winter you can use it as a layer below a bigger, more substantial coat. There are eight different styles of the Milford shacket, ranging from soft brushed cotton to a water-repellent technical cloth.