Bengal stripes, university stripes/candy stripes, reverse stripes—these are all great. But right now I’m hyping on shadow stripes.
A shadow stripe is a stripe that has a narrower stripe right at its edge, usually in a darker shade of the primary stripe color.
Last summer, Ralph Lauren had one in a business-appropriate spread collar pinpoint oxford fabric; I ordered it, but was underwhelmed by the collar shape. Nonetheless the fabric was beautiful.
Proper Cloth has two excellent-looking shadow stripes right now. One doesn’t use a darker shade for the shadow stripe, but rather sets the smaller stripe off from the main slightly. The second uses a darker shade for the shadow. I ordered swatches of them both and I’m glad I did—the second one is a smaller scale pattern, which makes it dressier, while the first is the same scale as the bengal stripe Proper Cloth sells (pics of the swatches at the bottom).
I actually really like wearing dressier shirts—made of broadcloth, pinpoint Oxford, or end-on-end with a stiffer collar in a spread or cutaway design, French placket and no breast pocket—with casual pieces like jeans. Sid Mashburn is the king of this look and it always looks so approachable and stylish. I’m picking up the Proper Cloth shirt shown in the article’s featured image at the top, and I fully intend to wear it with jeans.
Eidos did a glorious shadow stripe in the SS2015 collection in a really nice open-weave fabric called “Airtex.” It’s a grail I am constantly on the lookout for in my size.
Sadly it’s not a pattern I come across often, at least at the shops I’m normally haunting. If you find any other cool shadow stripe shirts, let me know in the comments!
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