White Shirts: The Search for the Holy Grail

For the past few years I have been on a search for the ‘Holy Grail’ of white shirts. All I want is a white shirt that long enough to visible at the bottom of sweaters, have sleeves that poke out of the end of sweater sleeves, and is made of a fabric that is not too thin and see-through. Not much to ask really is it?

Well apparently, it is. I have several white shirts in my wardrobe, some of them tall fitting, some of them not, and all of them have one of the qualities I’m looking for, but none of them are the One. I did have the One, the Holy Grail shirt. It was from the Gap and was perfect – thick cotton with a little stretch, a great length in the body and super long sleeves as they were meant to turn back with cufflinks. But what did I do? Around 18 months ago a duster got mixed up with my white washing and the Gap shirt (along with everything else white in the load) got dyed pale yellow. Not attractive.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I spotted the Anne white shirt in the new Long Tall Sally catalogue:

Do you see how the model has the sleeves folded back over the jacket? This must mean the sleeves are long, right?

Right.

I bought the shirt and I have just tried it on. It’s fabulous! The fit on the body is perfect and the sleeves are so long that they cover part of my hands. I was wearing a bright blue tank underneath when I tried it on and I could hardly tell, the fabric is of such good quality. I will definitely be planning lots of outfits around a white shirt!