It seems like we've been seeing a lot of the French sailor shirts here and there lately. I guess virtually every Spring and Summer, bits of nautical style pop up. Of late it's probably part in thanks to Audrey Tatou in Coco Avant Chanel. (she looks great in everything!) The dvd releases Feb. 16 by the way...

Can you imagine that it was way back in the early 1900s that Coco Chanel popularized the look at her store in Deauville (around 1917). Before that the French label St. James had been making the shirts and sweaters for sailors since about 1850.
Here is Coco in 1930.

I'm afraid to imagine how much a Chanel version of the shirt would cost. But you can still get the original Saint James verision from Calypso. ($135)
A couple more modern versions are this one from Anthropologie ($68)

and this tissue tee version from J. Crew ($32.50)


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