A Shirt Is Just An Idea
Paris Fashion Week had lots of shirts that were unconventional, and alongside Bella Hadid and Doechii's unbuttoned tops, make the case for non-shirt shirts.
A week ago, a trend bubbled up in the NYLON newsroom. Bella Hadid was spotted on set in a shirt that wasn’t buttoned at all, but rather tucked into her jeans. A day later, Doechii stepped out in Paris with a button-down secured at the neck, but otherwise left open. Both girls were braless, with more skin showing than fabric, leading my coworker to ask: “Why are we even wearing shirts anymore?” The Paris runways replied in kind with ideas for shirts that also defied logic and reason. For the upcoming season, the answer to wearing tops is to wear anything but a top.
At Alaïa, the fashion was fantastical — almost unwearable at points — with an opening trio of looks that were mere suggestions of clothes, complete with condom-like sheaths wrapped around models’ heads, cinching and constricting the torso. Courrèges’ feather-cum-scarves were a bit more functional, yet breast-revealing and conceptual all the same. At Victoria Beckham, coats were rolled up like sushi and one shirt in particular was the comfiest offering of the whole week: a bathrobe-style cropped long-sleeve. Schiaparelli turned a belt into a shirt, with a buckle neckline and a end-tip hemline, and Hodakova turned chinos into a tank top. Unconventional fabrics and other pieces of clothing meant for other parts of the body all gave new ways to frame the torso.
To be fair, there were plenty of acceptable, regular-degular shirting options on the runways. Dior brought back their “J’ADORE DIOR” shirts from the 2000s, Balenciaga’s take on gorpcore offered much in the vein of corseted dressy button-downs, and Haider Ackermann’s sensuous debut Tom Ford collection was all about no-nonsense leather pieces. But for those who tire of perfectly acceptable tops, why not make the case for non-shirt shirts? After all, Hunter Schafer wore a single feather across her chest not too long ago, and fashion’s often snoozy nature — especially during the Fall/Winter shows heavy on fur coats and perfectly fine dresses — needs a caffeine hit every once in a while.
So, yes, next time you step out and buy a top, maybe switch it up and cut off half of it, refuse to button it, or otherwise alter it. Even if you’re not wearing a massive feather as a shirt, you can twist, mend, and adjust pieces. Everything is not as it seems, and fashion is holding up a mirror to the wacky times.
