Thank you all for entering, this giveaway has now closed. Congratulations to the winner Abi Dare!
As some of you will know, I’m more than a little obsessed with a Breton striped top. In my profile picture on the blog I’m wearing stripes, in my Instagram photos I’m wearing stripes and in my drawers there’s stripes, stripes, stripes of all shapes, sizes and colours. As a bit of a Francophile myself, I just can’t get enough of them. They’re synonymous with the care-free insouciance, confidence and natural charm of Parisian style – that little bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’ that the French exude so well. That feline flick of eyeliner, that crisp white shirt, that smart blazer and jeans, that scarf tied just right, and that Breton striped top with the sleeves rolled up.
The Breton striped top was first introduced in 1858 as the uniform for French sailers in Brittany. It had 21 navy stripes for each of Napoleon’s victories, with white stripes twice as large as the blue ones. The design was meant to make them easier to see in the water in emergencies. The tops were also easy to move about in and became popular with workers in northern France. Families had their own striped patterns, much like Scottish tartan traditions, but the colour was always the same: indigo blue.
Moving into the fashion world, the easy-to-wear garment was soon picked up by Coco Chanel, who used the Breton stripe in her nautical collection of 1917 after a visit to the coast. Soon it became popular with stars, from James Dean and Brigitte Bardot to Edie Sedgwick and Audrey Hepburn.
French company Armor Lux has been creating Breton striped garments since 1938. The brand was founded in Quimper in Brittany by the Swiss Walter Hubacher and now has 50 stores across the world, mainly in France. The manufacturing of the products is still done in Quimper: there’s a knitting and dyeing workshop in the town centre and a second further out of town for cutting activities, logistics and a large shop. In total, Armor Lux produces over 5,000,000 items a year!
They very kindly sent me my own Breton striped top to try on for size, which I’ve styled here with my favourite ‘mom’ jeans in my own home (You can win one too, more details at the end of the post). With it’s boat neckline and long sleeves, it’s the perfect slim shape for tucking into jeans or layering up with this coming colder weather. Some Breton tops can be unflattering see-through or have a wide slash neck, fine in the summer, but a little bit messy if you want to layer a t-shirt underneath – Armor Lux’s version is 100% cotton, super soft and surprisingly substantial, not to mention chic. I think I’ll be living in it all winter, then through to spring and summer too…
You can WIN this lovely Armor Lux Breton top I’m wearing (obviously not mine, I’m already wearing it ALL the time!), simply scroll down to the bottom of the post and enter via the Rafflecopter widget. A winner will be selected at random and announced on Wednesday 28th October, good luck or should I say, bonne chance!
All images: cate st hill, except the black and white courtesy Armor Lux. Thank you to Armor Lux for gifting the tops for the purpose of the blog post and giveaway.
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