A €5 shirt becomes art: six summer twists

turning a – For summer, some people take classes or garden. A fashion editor, instead, buys a €5 men’s shirt and turns it into something new—draped wrap tops, deliberate-panel back styling, bow-neck going-out pieces, and even a skirt or bubble skirt made by nesting two sh

When summer arrives, you can almost measure the seasonal shift by the outfits. While some people chase surfing lessons, sign up for pottery classes, or get really into gardening once summer rolls around, this fashion editor does something far stranger—and far more personal.

They buy a €5 men’s shirt and treat it like origami: cinching. twisting. and tucking until it stops looking like a shirt and starts looking like an entirely different garment. The real ritual isn’t just the transformation. It’s what happens when they come home with another oversized shirt that “looks like it belonged to someone’s uncle.” Their boyfriend’s expression changes every time—because he knows what’s coming: twenty minutes of aggressive manipulation and a full-blown identity crisis for the shirt in question.

By the end of those twenty minutes, the beginning is never where the story ends. A button-down becomes a draped top, an asymmetric blouse, or, on ambitious days, a bubble skirt. The editor’s verdict is blunt: chances are your shirts are bored. The rest of the piece is a set of instructions—part styling, part summer defiance.

It starts with softness and shape. For a softly draped wrap-style top with asymmetric waist action. the editor says to refuse the shirt’s usual rules: don’t button it. Grab the side with the buttons and pull it around your waist, like tying a cardigan. Bring the opposite side across your body and over the first. then find the exact gathering spot at your side waist where the drama should happen. If the shirt is comically oversized. steal some fabric from under the opposite armpit and bring it over to the waist. Hold everything in place. reach underneath until you find the gathered bundle of fabric at your side. and secure it with a hair tie.

Next comes a look that depends on a small leap of faith. Put the shirt on backwards so the collar stands up like an elegant turtleneck situation. Button it at the back. but leave one or two buttons undone—just enough to create “deliberate panels.” Flip to the front (even though it’s technically the back). then fold the lower part upward into a clean. narrow band until around waist height so it cinches naturally. The leftover deliberate panels hang behind you. Gather them and tie them into a bow at the back. then accept that you’ve created a top that’s intentional and mildly delusional at the same time.

If your shirt’s pattern refuses to cooperate, the editor’s advice is simple: wear it backwards anyway. Button it all the way at the back, then decide what your hands do. Let them hang dramatically through the undone sleeve openings for full theatricality. or keep them in the sleeves. rolled up for a “this is under control” effect.

For going out, the instructions shift from back styling to a more dramatic neckline. If you’re working with an oversized “uncle shirt,” the editor says it’s not invited. But with a smaller. preferably satin shirt. begin by bringing the hem of the shirt up around your neck and tying it so the resulting panels form a bow at the front. The effect is a draped, deep neckline. Then take the sleeves—now hanging—and bring them to the back. making sure the front is neatly tucked in and sitting flat for a clean. straight hem. Finally, take those sleeves and tie them into a bow at the back to match the one above them.

The editor then moves into skirt territory, where logic stops being the main character. They say you can make the perfect skirt if you have two shirts with similar length and matching button plackets. so one can literally live inside the other. But harmony isn’t required; in fact. they argue the pattern and color are better when they don’t match at all. Take the first shirt and button it into the second one so they become a continuous piece. The collars end up circling your waist, and you button everything down until you reach the end. That’s your skirt.

If a bubble skirt feels more interesting. they prescribe another workaround for volume: wear tight athletic shorts underneath. then button the shirts only as far as you want the skirt length to be. Take the excess fabric and tuck it into the shorts all the way around. The final effect, they say, is volume and intention—paired with the uneasy awareness that it works anyway.

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