Spring Essentials: J.Crew Oxford Shirts

If there is one article of clothing that has completely dominated my closet/wardrobe year round, it would have to be the J.Crew Oxford Shirts. With a variety of colors, washes and patterns to choose from these shirts provide endless wardrobe possibilities which can be dressed up or down and go with pretty much anything. Thus making getting dressed in the morning a no brainer.

Oxford shirts (to the surprise of many) did not originate in England, but rather Scotland in the 19th century. While experimenting with different types of woven fabrics, the mills decided to name their original fabrics after the most popular universities of the day: Yale, Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford. The other fabrics never really caught on and thus stopped being produced but luckily the Oxford weave took off. The "button down" in OCBD (oxford cloth button down) refers to the buttons on the collar, not the plackets of the shirt and are seen as a more casual shirt, especially once they became popular among Ivy League students who often times wore them untucked and paired with shorts.

While many other stores famously offer exquisite OCBD (Brooks Brothers and O'Connell's to name a few) I've found that none match J.Crew's cut, color options and affordably. Especially at the J.Crew Factory Store. I've gone back several times this season alone of pick up new colors as they come out. Best of all these shirts require very little maintenance. Wear the hell out of them, toss in the dryer after they're washed and don't worry about them shrinking. Even as the temperatures rise, J.Crew has the same button down style in Seersucker and Linen materials, although they aren't as resilient as their Oxford brethren. Do yourself a favor and stop by J.Crew or their Factory Store today and pick up one (or several) of these fantastic shirts.