Sticking the landing when it comes to summer style can be an Olympian achievement. When the temperature hits great heights, layers are no longer an option. Nor is knitwear, long sleeves, or anything else you might use to look good during the rest of the year. Which is why it all comes down to your shirt. You want something light and cool but not boring. Or worse, sloppy. And, perhaps most important, you want it to allow plenty of airflow to keep you from overheating. Luckily we have the answer to this style conundrum: this camp collar shirt from London-based brand Basic Rights.
If you doubt this shirt’s style bona fides, just check out Donald Glover wearing one in the cast photo for Lion King. Clearly the shirt ticks all of the boxes for perfect summer style. Made from an ultra soft and breathable tencel fabric sourced from Japan, the shirt takes its style cues from the classic camp collar looks of the 1950s. It’s got a great boxy shape, but not overly so, which means you can look more “polished guy out on the town” rather than “just scored a 230 in my bowling league.” Plus, when that day finally comes and the temps do drop, it’s a perfect shirt to layer under a blazer or a bomber.
And, maybe the best part, Basic Rights is all about creating sustainable fashion. Whenever possible, all garments are made using deadstock fabric. And the camp collar shirt is made from deadstock tencel. And, because the manufacture, transport, and distribution of clothing is hardly a carbon neutral enterprise, Basic Rights has partnered with Trees for the Future, an organisation that tries to offset carbon emissions by planting trees to produce more oxygen. To date, Basic Rights have planted 10,000 trees. So buy it and get the perfect summer shirt without feeling like a deadbeat for destroying the environment to do it. It’s win-win.
