These strange, strange days, it's all about your upper half. A global pandemic has spurned a spike in work-from-home situations—and, if you're lucky enough to have that option and privilege, you and your entire office have simultaneously discovered the glorious power of video call meetings. That's enough reason for you to spruce up every once in a while, even in the comfort of your living room! If, like us, you feel that putting on something cute helps beat laziness and gets the workflow going, you'll love this video-friendly trend that doesn't necessarily need a pair of pants to complete it. Meet the Puritan collar.
Let's throw things back to ye olde 1600s. When the showy and flamboyant King Charles I of England and his court started setting the era's fashions, the greatest change was marked by the disappearance of the frilly Elizabethan ruff in favor of broad, flat lace or linen collars. His court's sheer ostentatiousness outraged the prudent Puritans, and in retaliation, they decreed their own famously modest dress code, eschewing decadent silks for simpler wools and cottons in so-called "sad colors". Still, the silhouette essentially remained the same, albeit more conservative.
It's their dark, pared-back take that's echoing four centuries later in 2020. Popularly styled in sombre contrasting hues (think a frothy ivory neck over a stark, simple black sweater), Chanel's smart gray tweeds and Ganni's pretty, poet-worthy poplin shirts are the picks du jour. The Massachusetts Bay Colony would solemnly approve.
