Sunday 5 June 2011

Style Trend . The Breton Shirt

I just love stripes...  My first memory of a Breton shirt (or 'The Mariner') was seeing Jean Seberg wearing one in the fabulous 1960s film Breathless. And then there is Bridget Bardot, Coco Chanel, James Dean and Edie Sedgwick.  Horizontal they may be, but stripes worn with a French attitude are the most flattering lines in the world. 

The proper name for the striped sailor shirt is the Breton.  It originated in Brittany, France where seamen had been wearing them since the 1820s.  The original was made of very fine knit cotton and protected seamen from the elements.  The French Navy made them part of their national uniform in 1858.  The stripes were supposedly meant to make it easier to see a man if they had fallen over board. 



No comments:

Post a Comment