Lumberjack shirts are back - and more stylish than ever
There's no getting away from the good old checked shirt right now. This down-to-earth item of clothing is back - with unexpected prestige.
What do lumberjacks, cowboys and Kurt Cobain have in common? Well, the checked shirt. But not the small-checked business version, but the rustic kind: generously cut, relaxed, often made of thick flannel - and currently very popular again.
High fashion instead of grunge
This modest item of clothing has never completely disappeared. However, it has not been able to recapture its popularity from the grunge era of the 1990s or the indie rock boom of the early 2000s. Until now.
Source: Launchmetrics/Spotlight
Source: Launchmetrics/Spotlight
Source: Launchmetrics/Spotlight
However, this time it's not distorted guitars that are putting the classic in the spotlight, but rather the sophisticated catwalks of high-end brands such as Bottega Veneta, Acne Studios, Coperni and Isabel Marant. It is precisely the associations with subcultures and robust workwear that make checked shirts so interesting for fashion: they are predestined for style breaks, which are almost part of good taste these days. With their rough attitude, they bring a certain nonchalance to elegant looks and at the same time gain in sophistication themselves through the interplay.
Lumberjack look on the catwalk
This doesn't mean, however, that chequered shirts necessarily have to be trimmed to look classy. In Junya Watanabe's fashion show for the current season, the models - including older men with full beards - were sent down the catwalk in a lumberjack look.
Source: Launchmetrics/Spotlight
On closer inspection, however, ties and stiff shirt collars wink at you under layers of flannel shirts and work waistcoats. Possibly a subtle commentary on how privileged people like to adorn themselves with the aesthetics of other working and living realities. Or perhaps simply a purely stylistic choice.
What I can say with certainty, however: Chequered shirts are excellent layering components and therefore made for the current season. Got a taste for it? Maybe you'll find your new favourite shirt here.
Has boundless enthusiasm for shoulder pads, Stratocasters and sashimi, but only limited nerves for bad impressions of her Eastern Swiss dialect.
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