This Who Shirt Company Tee Is What’s Missing From Your Life
This Who Shirt Company Tee Is What’s Missing From Your Life
Libby Haan has spent two decades in fashion, representing designers and brands small and large—names like Jil Sander, Hussein Chalayan, Marni, MSGM, and Schiaparelli. The closet in her Chelsea apartment befits the exacting insider that she is; it’s orderly and chock-full of precious one-offs and sample-sale scores. This writer was the lucky recipient of a loan in the form of a Fall 1997 Comme des Garçons dress, worn to last year’s Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons Met Gala. Among her many other treasures are a navy jacket with a giant eagle on the back from a circa 2000 Miguel Adrover collection, a beloved bubblegum pink Junya Watanabe jacket from the season the Japanese designer riffed on Chanel tweeds, and a white padlock jacket by Schiaparelli designer Bertrand Guyon. As much as she loves them, however, Haan rarely wears them, because she’s struggled to find the right tops to wear underneath them. The fabric was either wrong, or the neckline was. “Everything I tried was soft or sheer, and I didn’t want to wear a silk camisole under something, I didn’t always want to wear a collared shirt. It needed to be plain.”
Enter the Who Shirt Company, a made-in-America line of luxe interlock Supima cotton tanks and tees, that Haan launched online today. A lifetime in PR didn’t just hone her taste, it turned her into an expert problem-solver.
The Who Shirt Company logo is an Athenian owl, perched on the back left shoulder. “Athena was a badass,” Haan says. As a breast cancer survivor, she identifies with the Greek goddess of wisdom and courage. But owl aside, Who’s true point of difference is that each style comes with a built-in bra, designed to streamline the getting-dressed process. “In my 20s I loved lace,” Haan says. “But now I’m so into comfort, I just don’t want to wear an underwire ever again.” Who’s innovative construction makes that possible. The internal shelf bra offers strapless support for women with C cups and smaller. “It’s not lingerie, it’s not an underpinning. It’s a foundation for your outfit that doesn’t currently exist in the marketplace,” says Haan. “I really believe women will want to buy them in multiples.”
Haan is sourcing developers to reproduce the technology for larger cup sizes. In the meantime, the first Who Shirt Company delivery includes a tank, a racerback, and a halter, which retail for $138, and crewneck and V-neck T-shirts, which go for $148. All five styles are available in white, black, beige, navy, and brown. At checkout, shoppers can opt for free inserts to slip inside the bra for more discrete coverage. Each style is named for a fellow female badass; the tank is Jane, as in Goodall; the racerback is Sally, as in Ride; and the halter is Gloria, for the one and only Gloria Steinem. Long-sleeved styles, including a turtleneck that Haan is particularly excited about, will follow in about two months, and there are dresses in the works for 2019. Here’s an idea: She should name the turtleneck the Libby.
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