Every morning, I spend the first 45 minutes of my day at work trawling the internet for inspiration (I swear it’s work-related!). Well, 15 minutes into today’s session, I came across The New York Times’ merchandise collection. It then took me roughly two minutes to discover this New York Herald Tribune knit shirt (buried for some reason on the last page!) and another two and a half minutes to convince myself to buy it.
It looks to be a high-quality and snuggly knit tee, in a vintage cut, with the words “New York Herald Tribune” (a newspaper rival of the NYT in the ’60s) printed in nostalgic typeface across the chest. Iconic details, all.
But the thing that really makes this shirt sing is the fact that it looks almost exactly like the one Jean Seberg’s character wears in the seminal French new-wave film by Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless. Breathless was my first exposure to Godard, who has since become one of my favorite directors. His films, especially A Woman Is a Woman, very much influenced my maximalist and kitschy aesthetic tendencies.
However, as much as I may aspire to channel those little styling and lifestyle tricks that give off that je ne sais quoi quality, dressing like an American in Paris (like Jean in Breathless) is much more my speed than pretending to have suddenly become a French girl. So, when I saw this shirt, in less time than it takes to brush my teeth, I evaluated whether or not I needed it (I did), would wear it regularly enough to justify the $90 price tag (I will), and if this was the treat-yourself item I wanted to gift myself this holiday season (it is). I then spent another 30 seconds picking between the L and XL options before just finally adding the XL to cart and checking out.
As an indecisive person, by the time I make a decision about buying something, it’s often no longer even available. This thus marks one of my most confident purchases to date. And sure, this shirt won’t exactly send me into a parallel dimension where the mis-en-scene is created by Godard, but if I put it on while playing Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Bonnie and Clyde,” it might at least give me an aura of joie de vivre. Now that’s $90 well-spent.
If you do want to channel the francophone lifestyle, this is how to vacation like a French girl and their secrets to skin care.
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