I’ve picked three thin cotton shirts that are great to throw on lightly: MARGESHERWOOD's COTTON DOBBY SHIRT_white, featuring a delicate texture on the surface; Moia's sheer stripe shirt (ivory), offering a cool, subtle sheer look; and MARGESHERWOOD's WINDOWPANE CHECK SHIRT_grey, detailed with a calm grid pattern. Thin cotton shirts always seem to quietly make their way to the very front of the closet whenever the seasons change.
Dobby weave is a technique that creates small, geometric textures on the fabric's surface, and the origin of its name is quite bittersweet. In 19th-century British textile mills, the young boys who spent all day pulling the loom's auxiliary mechanism by hand were called "dobbies," a dialect term meaning fools or simpletons. As time passed and machines replaced that grueling, repetitive labor, the name tags of those young mill boys remained forever attached to the device and the fabric.
Thanks to that exact bumpy, three-dimensional texture, MARGESHERWOOD's dobby shirt isn't flat and clings less to the body. All three shirts have a generous fit, making them perfect for buttoning up on their own or wearing draped like a light jacket. Would you like a clean white without patterns, something with checks or stripes, or should I find you a slimmer fit that hugs the body more closely?
↳ A pattern-free white
For pattern-free white shirts, I picked two: MARGESHERWOOD's COTTON DOBBY SHIRT_white and MOONDAL's Low Shirt in White. The MARGESHERWOOD has a subtle dobby-woven texture so it doesn't look flat, while the MOONDAL is wonderful for a very neat look thanks to its clean lines. A white shirt might feel like a common basic always hanging in the closet, but depending on the collar shape and the subtle drape of the shoulder line, the mood it gives off changes quite significantly.
Hannah Montague, a homemaker living in Troy, New York, in the 19th century, noticed while washing her blacksmith husband's shirts every day that only the collar area got dirty with sweat and grime. In 1827, to save the trouble of washing the entire shirt, she cut off just the collar with scissors, washed it separately, and starched it stiffly, creating the detachable collar. As this ingenious invention spread and became commercialized, the city of Troy grew into a massive collar city supplying detachable collars to the whole world.
Even if it's not like the days of detaching and starching collars, today's white shirts still clearly suit different occasions depending on their fit and details. Between the 2 of MARGESHERWOOD and MOONDAL, which direction shall we take a step closer to? You can choose whether to go with a slim fit, keep it under KRW 150,000, or explore designs with details.
↳ A slim fit
I picked three slim shirts that neatly highlight the body line: AMOMENTO's Sheer Slim Shirt, White and Pintuck Slim Shirt, Ivory, plus RECTO's OPEN BACK DRAPED SHIRT (BEAN IVORY). Rather than just narrowing the width like before, slim-fit shirts these days tend to lean toward avoiding plainness with see-through fabrics, pintuck pleats, or daring slits. In particular, RECTO's shirt features a graceful drape in the front, contrasted by a refreshing twist with an open back.
In the 1972 French film "The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe," actress Mireille Darc asked designer Guy Laroche for a backless dress to leave a strong impression during her mere 8 days of screen time. While the front modestly covered up to her neck, the back dipped daringly down just above the tailbone, so the genuinely stunned expression of co-star Pierre Richard as she opened the door and turned around was captured directly on camera.
This shirt also holds a light tension behind its neat collar, catching the eye at least once. Now, shall we take a step further among these three? You can see a basic style without details, look for a breezy cropped length or machine-washable ones that don't need dry cleaning, or prioritize keeping the price under KRW 150,000.
Final Selected Products
