Margaret Howell Oversized Shirt Dress

Irish linen is not a marketing county. Flax was grown and retted in the north of Ireland for centuries, the spinning and weaving industry that grew around it produced the finest linen cloth in Europe, and Irish shirting linen specifically means a linen spun fine and woven light enough to make a shirt rather than a jacket or a cloth for a table. What distinguishes it is the slub: the flax fiber is long and irregular, so the yarn thickens and thins along its length and the woven surface has a faint unevenness in it that no even yarn can imitate. That is the whole appeal, and it is why linen looks better after ten years than after ten minutes. Cut oversized and made long, the cloth gets to do what it wants, which is to fall in wide, soft folds and crease across them. It fastens down the front with buttons, the way a shirt does, which is what the name promises and what the garment delivers: the front opens the whole way, so it can be worn closed, worn open over trousers, or worn as a light layer over something else entirely. There is a pocket at the chest and two more hidden at the hips, which are the three pockets a dress of this kind actually needs and more than most of them have. The color is Natural, which on a linen of this kind means the cloth's own undyed shade rather than a dye chosen to resemble one. Made in Italy from the Irish cloth.

Linen at shirting weight is difficult to buy well, because most of what is sold as linen is heavy enough to hang like a curtain. This one is fine, and the pockets mean it is a garment rather than an occasion.

The slub of Irish linen is one of the cloths Margaret Howell has named as her own starting point, and this is the plainest use of it in the line.

One hundred percent Irish shirting linen, made in Italy. Oversized, buttoning through the front, with a chest pocket and two concealed pockets at the hips. Color: Natural.

Oversized through the body and long, so it hangs from the shoulder and does not need a waist. Numeric sizing. Linen at this weight will crease within an hour of putting it on and that is not a fault; it is the reason to own linen rather than a reason to avoid it. It softens substantially over the first season and keeps softening.

On its own in heat, which is the version it was cut for. Over the Seamless Crew or under the Raglan Blazer when it is not. It layers over trousers without argument because there is enough room in it to put something underneath, and because the front buttons all the way down it can be left open and worn as the outer layer instead.

Wash cool and dry flat or on a line rather than in a hot dryer, which is what makes linen brittle over time. Do not press it flat unless you want it flat. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

The V Neck Dress is a matt silk cut to fall from the shoulder, the Relaxed Blazer is a worn linen with a soft shoulder, and the Relaxed Pleated Trouser is a compact linen twill. Everything we carry from Margaret Howell is listed together.