The Denim Shirt Is an American Icon That’s Actually Worthy of the Superlative

There’s no disputing the denim shirt is an icon. I could tout its stylistic merits six ways to Sunday, but suffice to say if there’s one piece of classic Americana actually worthy of the superlative, it just might be the—often blue, always sexy—denim button-up.

There are few items more synonymous with a certain everyman aesthetic and the politicians trying to mimic it on TV. (Hell, one of the most enduring s of a certain President-elect involves Amtrak Joe flashing his signature pearly whites wearing a particularly excellent denim shirt—from Levi’s, naturally—on the cover of InStyle way back in 2017.) But there are also few items more synonymous with adventurous American style of the sort favored by everyone from old hands like Ralph Lauren to upstart streetwear savants. The denim shirt does it all.

A reputation for versatility like that has to be earned, and rest assured: the denim shirt didn’t cut any corners. Can you wear one during the week? Of course. Can you wear one on the weekends? You bet. Can you wear one on those days when you oversleep, check your phone in a panic, and then wonder why no one’s online yet before remembering it’s, like, President’s Day or something? Hell yes! That’s exactly when you should wear one. (If you’re really feeling yourself, you can even wear one with—gasp!—a silk knit tie and a fair isle vest. Y’know, just for shits and giggles.)

So this winter, why not throw on a denim shirt, roll up those sleeves, and then ready yourself for four years of stultifying partisan gridlock so soul-crushingly normal you’ll almost forget what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night not knowing if a string of errant tweets kicked off a nuclear war? America, baby! At least we still do denim right.