Your Summer Wardrobe Needs a Good, Beat-to-Hell Oxford Shirt

We’re at that time of year where you pull out your phone and you check the weather and realize that spring might just be an illusion and summer is lurking around the corner with an oppressive level of heat. This then makes you realize that your entire wardrobe is still configured for variable temperatures and that you haven’t even thought about what you’re going to wear when the majority of your clothing is uncomfortable. Fear not, options abound, but let’s get into one that can bear the weight of an entire week’s worth of outfits, that might not always get the summer shirt love it deserves: the humble oxford.

Is this groundbreaking? God no. It’s more of a reminder, however, that there’s an unsung summer hero in our midst and you should absolutely be running one (or four) into the ground over the next few months. After all, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of owning a beat-to-hell oxford, you’ll also know that it’s one of the most enjoyable things you can pull off of a hanger.

It is an “any reason” proposition, too, because unlike a camp collar or a knit polo, there’s very much a window of freakiness that nearly all oxfords have to operate inside of, and it’s not a particularly wide one. But that’s also the beauty of the genre: the sturdy-yet-soft fabric and inherent versatility allows for disproportionate (re: reckless) wear, which in turn allows for hard-earned “staple” status. (And if you don’t have one that is a staple, you’re in the right place.)

Because pretty much any brand with a shirt piles into that relatively narrow window, however, there’s also quite the spectrum of oxfords, so we thought we’d pick out a few of our favorites so you can handle the duality of spring’s final days and summer’s eventual takeover.