This month, as Vogue.com celebrates the versatile shirt, we look at some of this classic’s most memorable appearances in Vogue and beyond. Cue Holly Golightly in a tuxedo shirt turned minidress, or **Peter Lindbergh’**s iconic snap of be-shirted models on a beach.
How to explain the current interest in the shirt, a traditional symbol of masculinity? It might have something to do with the increasingly blurred line between a man’s and a woman’s wardrobe, a phenomenon which has given rise to a distinctly modern tomboy. It’s also interesting to note that women throughout history have adapted elements of menswear as they broke barriers: The uniform of the Gibson Girl was a shirt and skirt; the flapper cropped her hair to a boyish bob; those aiming to crack the glass-ceiling wore “dress for success” suits. But perhaps this is overthinking things. Perhaps the shirt is perennially chic simply because it works—as a preppy staple, a layering piece, a suggestive morning-after cover-up. To borrow a phrase from Cole Porter, it is “the top.”
