The influence of what real people wore in the 70s continues with the ringer T-shirt – the kind that comes with a ring of contrasting colour around the sleeve and (usually) neckline. Hardly exceptional, it is the sort of item that everyone has had in their wardrobe at one time or another – I remember wearing a vintage one almost every day for the whole of 1998. It has the feel of family photographs found in a shoebox on top of a wardrobe, part of a 70s teenager look that also involved short A-line skirts, long centre-parted hair and possibly knee socks.
It is this look – one that Sindy of the same era is also fond of – that is enjoying a bit of a moment in fashion, ever since Nicolas Ghesquière put it on the Louis Vuitton catwalk last season. While ringer T-shirts weren’t included in a collection of clothes that all probably had four-figure price tags, the influence of this collection – very The Brady Bunch – has trickled down to the high street, in pieces that channel the same era. If lawn-chair prints are now standard, the ringer T-shirt fits right in, and is now at stores including New Look, Topshop and Asos. Striped ones get extra points, especially when tucked into those A-line short skirts. And if in doubt, dust off the family photos for some tips.
