The once humble Breton stripe rose relatively quickly to true fashion staple–dom from its previous role as a French seamen’s slip-on go-to, and for both how and why, one need not look much further than the always fashionable ABCs—that’d be, Audrey (Hepburn), Brigitte (Bardot), Coco (Chanel). Though one could just as easily look to Pablo Picasso, who sported his on the French seaside with aplomb—or to Jean Seberg, whose tightly worn top surely sold more newspapers than her trill of "New York Herald Tribune!" during **Jean-Luc Godard’**s sixties New Wave sensation Breathless. A true marinière, according to those who would know, requires the inclusion of 20 navy blue stripes 10 millimeters wide spaced 20 millimeters apart (fourteen on the sleeves), but we won’t judge you for taking yours at a different pace, as designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent, and Sonia Rykiel have over the years.
And there may, in fact, be no better garment to usher in these final sun-soaked days of summer, when your tan is especially rich, your hair necessarily wind-ruffled, your overall mood drenched in that particular quixotic, contented laziness that comes with the end of one season and the start of the next. And while you while away these final hours, take heart: Just as these sailor stripes (French sailor stripes, no less!) carried through the last century, they will carry you through fall with ease. Here, the best vintage inspiration for the look, and the ones to buy now (and wear forever).
