The Best White Button-Down Shirts For Women

With its tux flare, this crisp white shirt is chic dressed up or down. Slightly oversized, with a front placket inspired by vintage bed shirts, The Tailor’s Tunic boasts a soft yet structured feel. Designer Erin Reitz launched the line earlier this year, utilizing 100 percent Italian cotton typically reserved for men’s shirts. And while her effortlessly cool brand is all about basics, the luxury composition and details of these shirts allow them to “age with you.”

Ann Mashburn’s Icon Shirt is anything but basic (thanks to Italian poplin, scaled collar and slim cut), yet a staple every wardrobe needs. Whether paired with boyfriend jeans or a structured skirt, this classic button down elevates your look and ease of dressing. As an ex-fashion editor, Ann has mastered not only how to design the best white shirt but details why – and how – to wear it in her infamous column.

With Olympia Gayot at the helm of J.Crew womenswear, white-button downs have taken a chic leap forward, as evidenced by this recent collaboration with Parisian designer Marie Marot. It features French cuffs, sleek cuff links and an elegant forget-me-not embroidery. Beyond its style quotient, this shirt is the ultimate feel good as J.Crew cotton is a proud member of Better Cotton, an initiative that helps cotton communities survive and thrive while protecting and restoring the environment.

This seasonless, crisp cotton button-down is all about brilliant details: extra-long cuffs (to wear long or cuffed up), side slits (to allow a variety of ways to tuck and tie), French seams, grosgrain detailing, and uniquely positioned pearl buttons (right at the bra-line rather than below, so you don’t fret about revealing too much). With its relaxed yet sophisticated style, Classic Six is a go-to for day or night.

A flattering oversized white button down that will have you channeling its namesake, arbiter of style Lauren Hutton. In crisp 100% cotton, with Kule’s striped branding tape at the side slit, The Hutton is an affordable menswear-inspired essential that looks better with every wear.

This lightweight button-down pairs well with layers, given its slim fit and extended cuffs, which can be worn long or rolled up. Featuring a single pocket and longer hem, this classic boasts a casual ease, as the Israeli-American designer’s namesake brand is dedicated to “dressing women for their everyday lives.”

TQE’s love for this brand – as referenced here – goes beyond its well-tailored cotton offerings. Launched last fall, after unearthing the finest silk fibers that would not break the bank, the silk cocktail shirt is an elevated button-down with Mother of Pearl buttons. Perfect for every month of the year. The 100% recycled silk is woven in Italy, produced in Portugal, and stylish dressed up or down. But the best reason to own it might just be, as Founder Pip Durell says, “[It’s] the kind of shirt that makes you feel just really f*cking great.”

Much like this Easy Ruffle white button-down, anything from Alex Mill is “guaranteed not to go out of style.” As the brand’s launch a decade ago was driven by the pursuit of the perfect shirt, this wardrobe essential has it all: great oversized fit (perfect to layer over t’s), crisp paper poplin (that’s equally chic wrinkled as it is pressed) and soft ruffles at collar and cuffs for maximum flair.

Founded by a former fashion editor with a verve for repurposing shirts, A Shirt Story offers the antithesis to fast fashion. Like the brand’s entire curated collection, this white button-down is upcycled – a repurposed men’s cotton shirt is reworked for an oversized women’s fit, collar and cuffs are frayed for stylish effect and new crystal buttons added for sparkle. A one-of-a-kind that will become your uniform staple.

The most advanced white button-down you will ever own, thanks to its MIT founders creating body regulating temperature (read: breathable) fabric with NASA, Ministry of Supply’s Aero Zero Oversized shirt features ample stretch, wrinkle resistance and recycled fabric (good for wash and wear, as well as the environment) in it’s comfortable oversized cut.