A hybrid between a shirt and a jacket, the overshirt is the perfect balance of style and function. Heavier and more relaxed than a shirt and lighter than a jacket, this versatile garment fills the gap for casual outerwear.
The origin of the overshirt, initially called the ‘chore coat’, can be traced back to late 19th-century workwear. It was once a working class garment worn by French railway workers, popular for its durability and utility. Its shape and design hasn’t changed much from the 1800s with bellowed breast pockets with flaps and large lower patch pockets, ideal for work tools at that time.
From its workwear roots to our daily wear, it became popular, like most trendy items of clothing, when it was worn by someone famous - Paul Newman, who much like Steve McQueen, style icons of the 60s, or New York photographer Bill Cunningham that was seen wearing almost religiously a royal blue piece for the most part of his four-decade career.