Lemaire Straight Collar Twisted Shirt

The interest in this shirt is a deliberate contradiction between two of its parts. The body is twisted, which means the seams are rotated out of their conventional vertical alignment so the cloth wraps around the torso rather than hanging as a front panel and a back panel joined at the sides. That is a soft, spiralling, slightly unstable geometry. The collar, by contrast, is straight: a plain unrolled band with no spread and no curve, which is the most rigid and formal collar shape there is. Setting one against the other is the whole design. The shirt is disciplined where you look first, at the neck, and fluid everywhere else, and the eye keeps travelling between the two. The cloth carries it. At 76% silk and 24% polyamide, this is a silk with real substance rather than a fragile one: the polyamide adds strength and a degree of resilience that a pure silk of the same fineness would not have, which matters particularly on a garment whose shape depends on rotated seams holding their rotation. Midnight violet is the last piece. It is dark enough to pass for black in most light and resolves into a deep blue-toned purple in strong light, which suits a shirt built on ambiguity.

Why we selected it

The straight collar against the twisted body is a genuine idea rather than a detail, and the polyamide content is what lets the twist survive being worn. Midnight violet is a colour worth having.

The Twisted line is one of Lemaire’s longest-running ideas and this is its most formal expression.

Materials and construction

76% silk and 24% polyamide. Twisted body construction with a straight collar. Made in Romania, in midnight violet.

Fit notes

The twisted construction means the shirt sits differently on the body than a conventionally seamed one and will look different in motion than on a hanger. We do not hold measurements, and there is no Lemaire size chart on this site.

Styling

A straight collar sits best worn open or with a single button, since it has no spread to fall into. The colour is the argument for wearing this in the evening, where it separates from black, and there is no reason to add anything to it.

Care

A silk and polyamide blend goes to a cleaner rather than into a machine, and it should be kept out of direct sun. Heat is the constraint the polyamide adds, so avoid a hot iron and press from the reverse if at all. Where a garment’s shape comes from rotated seams, aggressive handling distorts it visibly. Our fabric care guide has a section on silk and one on garments that are more than one material.

Related pieces

The Twisted Top and the Twisted Hem Skirt carry the same construction. In silk, the Light Plastron Top. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.