The nineties got the T shirt right in a way that nobody has fully improved on since. The boxy cut, the slightly heavier cotton, the way it sits off the shoulder rather than clinging to it. These are not nostalgic novelties. They are genuinely the most useful thing in a working wardrobe right now, which is exactly why we keep pulling them back to the top of our recommendations.

What we love about a proper nineties cut is how hard it works across a whole week. Tucked into wide leg trousers on Monday. Thrown under a blazer on Wednesday. Knotted at the front with straight leg jeans by Friday. The same T shirt doing completely different jobs without complaint.

The ones we have chosen here are the versions that get the proportions exactly right. Not oversized in a sloppy way. Not so boxy they swamp a smaller frame. Just that precise amount of relaxed ease that makes everything you put with it look considered rather than accidental.

The nineties T shirt is not a basic. It is the piece that makes everything else make sense.