Hot under the collar How the white shirt made a powerful comeback

Victoria Beckham has positioned herself as a pop star, mother, perfumer, TikToker and fashion designer. But whatever job next month's Netflix documentary focuses on - details are scant - she will always be scrutinised over how she looks. How to temper that? Wear a plain white shirt.

- Morwenna Ferrier

The documentary poster released this week shows Beckham wearing a diamond tennis bracelet, open-collar white shirt - and nothing else. Last week, the Princess of Wales appeared at the Natural History Museum in London, also in a plain white shirt.

This month, the Duchess of Sussex launched her latest Netflix series in a white shirt (one of seven in fact), and when Taylor Swift announced her new album she did so wearing a white shirt.

Laura Dern wore hers twice at the Venice film festival, and the star with fashion's most enviable wardrobe, Sarah Jessica Parker, chose a billowing one to promote her role as a Booker prize judge.

In a pleasing twist, Kate's and Meghan's shirts were from the same British brand, With Nothing Underneath, whose roaring trade in oversized £100+ poplin shirts helped the company grow by 130% in 2023. At the cheaper end of things, sales of white shirts shot up 33% this month at John Lewis.