There are few garments more riffed on than the work shirt, a design born from pure utility and manual labor. The best work shirts of today, though, need not be worn for any particular task other than looking straight up cute. Or handsome. Or rugged. Or debonair. Or whatever your personal style leans toward because work shirts have a lot more range than you’d believe. Whether it’s a classic chambray shirt with its dual chest pockets or an avant-garde flip in an impractically luxe silk charmeuse, work shirts’ simplicity is what lends them their flexibility.
These days, the right work shirt can be worn under a well-tailored suit without eliciting any raised brows or tossed over a grungy vintage tee and track pants for a model-off-duty look. The lines between workwear, formalwear, streetwear, and any-wear have blurred to the point that having a work shirt in your closet is necessity no matter who you are or what line of work you’re in.
With that broad of an ability, there’s an even broader range of options, too. So we clicked furiously through the trenches of the menswear internet to find the absolute best work shirts out there, from the humble, hardwearing options you’d find at your local surplus store to the rarified, over-the-top versions that’ll outlast you and your next of kin.
