Your cue to wear blue

A couple of weeks ago, at my book club, four women turned up in blue shirts. They varied a little. One was slightly cropped. One was open, worn over a T-shirt. Another was buttoned up and untucked (no one is tucking in any more). They were a mix of block soft cornflower blue and lighter spring-sky versions. But still, all blue.

Soon afterwards, I took a video call with the stylist Erin Walsh, who was in the middle of prepping Anne Hathaway for the Devil Wears Prada 2 press tour. She was in a cab in New York on the way to her office wearing a crisp mid-blue shirt and a red sweater tied around her shoulders. For a while, we ignored the fact I too was wearing blue, until the end of the call, when she broke, laughing. “We’re wearing the same shirt!” Hers had chunky ornate buttons on the cuffs. Mine was a blue pinstripe from Whistles (the shirt I put on when, working from home, I need to feel collected enough to speak to someone who isn’t the dog).

The more I look, the more blue shirts I see. Zendaya, crumpled in Paris. In Fulham, a couple fussing over a buggy – hers with tiny embroidered flowers, his with stripes. (I wonder if the baby has noticed.) Walsh has written a book called The Art of Intentional Dressing, about choosing clothes for how you want to feel. “Blue is the calming colour,” she says. “The world is crazy on fire – we need to feel calm.”

I prefer blue to white, which, contrary to long-held lore, I don’t think suits all: too blunt, too much like school. Cut is key – avoid too much blousyness – check it’s cotton, beware the synthetic mix. Yaitte does an impeccable striped oversized version. Sezane’s Tomboy is a great workhorse. And Vinted is flooded with excellent men’s Yves Saint Laurent ones.

There’s nothing new about a classic blue shirt, of course. It might have proliferated across recent catwalks, from Bottega Veneta to Dior, Celine and McQueen, but there is still comfort in dressing alike. At least we can all agree on that.

Main image: model wears fine stripe shirt, £225, Yaitte