I love the look of a proper silk shirt worn in the day in an unsmart sort of way, preferably with denim cut offs and flip flops, or jeans at the very least. In my quest to buy something luxe that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (something in the same vein as the beautiful shirts from Equipment but at about half the price), I have fallen in love with a local-ish label called Vaughan.

Tailored just a hop, skip and a jump away in Hong Kong, Vaughan only does shirts.

They are designed with an American aesthetic (very à la Equipment which was, after all, modeled on American films of the 1950s and stars such as Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, who later became a client) but hand sewn at their Hangzhou workshop.

Vaughan shirts are in fact made from Hangzhou silk, rated by those who know (not me) as being the best in the world.  Quite a claim.

They actually use crêpe de Chine which has an amazing fall (or drape I think is the right word; but you get my point – it’s thick enough to sit really well and not be too see-through).

I am wearing my long sleeved one in navy, above (navy being so much more flattering than black on a pale skin).

I have also fallen in love with wearing bright, bright yellow and snapped up their short sleeved number in California Sunshine (a great name if nothing else). It has a slightly sheer back panel which is a detail I really like.

To be paired with black jeans and heels and worn in the hope that I won’t look like a giant bumble bee…which is, co-incidentally, the Vaughan logo; there is a bee on every shirt, discretely embroidered at the very bottom of the button panel, sometimes in a contrasting colour like below, sometimes not (on my navy shirt, the bee is also navy).

She’s meant to represent good fortune, joy and community. The bee also symbolises hard work: she flies in spite of herself, her body is not aerodynamic and her wings are tiny yet she beats them so quickly, she takes flight.

The bee reminds us that we can achieve the impossible…and for me, the impossible is finding a bloody brilliant (white) shirt.  Thank you Vaughan.

Vaughan is available through gnossem.com (a Singapore based, independent fashion site, pronounced ‘nossum’). Delivery is free, worldwide.

The long sleeve Vaughan ‘Hepburn’ shirts are priced at S$158/£78 each. Their pin-up, cuffed short sleeved shirts ‘The Bettie’ cost S$123/£61.

Although I don’t do any link ups with any websites featured on my site, my lovely friend over at I Love Bon Bons does. If you type in ILOVEBONBONS (must be in caps) as the coupon code when you checkout at Gnossem, you will get 10% off the price of your order, as well as a complimentary bracelet.