The maxi shirt dress – how to style this tricky trend

If you love the button down shirt (or have an unhealthy obsession for them as I do), then by extension, you should also love the shirt dress, right? But the difficulty lies in how quickly a shirt dress, worn on its own, can turn into something completely out of context – a night shirt (when you’re not going for pajama chic), a lab coat, or an awfully convincing nativity play costume. So how to nail this tricky trend?

My strategy when it comes to unfamiliar trends is to treat it like something you’re familiar with, and see what happens. Do with it what you would an ordinary shirt: layer it under a sweater, blazer it, or try my favourite: the front-tuck into a pair of amazing jeans. This is extra fun when you’ve got a silky shirt dress to work with, which will add a deliberately haphazard swish to your walk.

Finally, I feel it incumbent on me to add my piece to a somewhat controversial question: where does the shirt end and the shirt dress begin? I can’t emphasise enough how important the ‘bend-over test’ is. Because, sometimes when you think it’s a dress, well, maybe it just isn’t!

Shirt Dress – May the Label
Ripped White Skinny Jeans – FRAME Denim (c/o Edwards Imports)
Mid-Heeled Sandals – ASOS
leather Watch – The Horse
Celine Trio Bag
Silver Bar Necklace – Correy & Lyon

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