In the end, it's all about the shirt

By Katie Weisman
International Herald Tribune

The television producer Adam Peck recently wowed colleagues at a production meeting for "World Cup Comedy" in Los Angeles by wearing a stunning French-blue shirt with incredible buttons.

The shirt was a home-tinkered hybrid, Peck explains. The blue color caught his eye at Banana Republic in the new Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. While the shirt's fabric was excellent, Peck felt the buttons looked cheap.

"So I went and bought vintage mother-of-pearl buttons," and replaced the old with the new, Peck says. Some $65 later, he had transformed an already good $80 shirt into a great one, adding to his collection of some 50 shirts, and winning him the nickname "Buttons."

Does the shirt make the man? The answer these days is yes. Menswear is doggedly conservative and the shirt has become the personality piece for the silhouette. In the entertainment industry, few wear jackets or suits, and for someone like Peck, the shirt is key. But for those industries where the suit is the norm, this item of clothing has been relatively unchanged for years — despite the innovative takes on the suit from the Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane, the use of color with Savile Row tailoring from Ozwald Boateng, or the fashionable silhouettes from designer labels such as Paul Smith, Prada or Gucci.

In this sea of suits, ties used to be the statement makers, but many feel that the tie has settled into established trend clans. Shoes? Some men experiment with color or shape, but black classics along the lines of Church's or J.M. Weston dominate.

"At the end of the day, it's all about the shirt," observes Raman Bet-Mansour, a Paris-based partner in the New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. "Suits, you have single or double-breasted, two or three buttons — that's it. Not much news in ties either."

Michael Booth, the owner of London's shirt maker Hilditch & Key, says that "people don't wear their jackets in the office as they did before. Therefore the shirt is a more important element in men's wardrobes than before."

Retailers, too, note the trend. "Men are waking up to the shirt," observes Christelle Cagi-Nicolau, the menswear designer and sportswear buyer for the Balthazar men's department at Le Bon Marché in Paris. "There's a uniform in menswear which is not about to fall, and men are more aware of the quality and styling of the shirt."

Executives at the shirt maker and retailer Thomas Pink argue that the shirt is to men what the shoe has become to women. "Today's man acknowledges style without the corporate seriousness of the '80s," says Alison Appel, Pink's sales and marketing director. "A good shirt is becoming more important than a good jacket with its ability to cross between work, home and social wardrobes."

Thomas Pink recently commissioned a study on the 21st-century man from the research and analysis agency The Future Laboratory. After researchers surveyed some 3,000 men, they concluded: "Shirts alone are proving to be one of the season's most interesting stories, especially for men, who say choosing a shirt is more important than choosing a jacket."

The trend has translated into significant increases in sales for Thomas Pink. While the company would not disclose figures, a spokeswoman said that menswear sales for fall/winter 2004 grew double-digits compared with fall/winter 2003, thanks to its Luxury collection and the recently launched Slim Fit line, whose tapered tailoring, colors and stripes appeal to younger customers.

Sales and styling aside, the shirt, even a custom-made one, gives a man a way to change his look that is less expensive than a suit. Retailers, designers and shirt makers note that men are moving upscale in their tastes, reflecting a new knowledge and interest in fabrics and in the fashion side of the shirt.

"It started in Italy and the United States first, and now it's happening in France," says Cagi-Nicolau. In response to this new demand, Balthazar introduced a designer shirt space, including in-store shops, for Charvet and Hilditch & Key in Paris, among others, in 2003.

Ralph Lauren, which started out nearly four decades ago with ties and shirts, is also capitalizing on the shirt's rising status. For spring/summer 2005, the company is going back to its roots with its Purple Label collection, offering crisp white tailored shirts, along with unusual pastels or bold stripes to be worn with bright eclectic ties. Polo Ralph Lauren, inspired by East Coast prepsters and Palm Beach society, has come out with colorful regular or irregular striped shirts paired with wild paisley or nautical print ties.

"The idea is to re-establish the brand as a premier destination for shirts and neckwear," a spokesman said.

In addition to its role as a piece of clothing, the shirt is a means of expression. "Men are using color in a way that they might not have ordinarily done in the past, and they know their shirt can change their whole look," says the designer Boateng, who has a signature collection in addition to being the creative director for Givenchy menswear. For his own line, Boateng is excited about a tone-on-tone herringbone weave for silk dress shirts in his upcoming collection.

Bet-Mansour, the lawyer, has been a clothes hound for years and now gets most of his suits and shirts custom-made in Naples. "With a shirt, I can go more toward wearing my personal preferences compared to the norms in my industry," he says. "Today, I am wearing a blue shirt that has a check pattern done in grass green and white stripes, and a green tie. I like the fact that I'm not dressed like any other man."

"These are the 100 percent hand-stitched shirts from Salvatore Piccoli," he adds, "not shirts where just the collar, cuff and shoulder are hand-stitched."

Piccoli started his business with his mother, a former shirt maker at Borelli, Italy's legendary custom house. Bet-Mansour likes the trim cut of Italian shirts, where there is less fabric around the torso, resulting in a cleaner fit at the waist.

Will the power of the shirt continue?

"Belts! Maybe the next big thing will be belts," Bet-Mansour jokes.