
“I have worn it fully tucked into shorts, tied up in the front, tied up in the front and tucked in the back, as a swim coverup, as a dress with a slip under,” Brown says. Plus, it’s a versatile little number to have hanging around.

Brown describes the material as so comfortable, you could sleep in the shirt. It has the look of a classic button-down - and fit, as Brown got her usual Universal Standard size - with a more lightweight looseness that’s easy to move in, especially (and importantly) in the arms and shoulders, she told us. There are a bunch of buttons on this button-down - both on the front and the sides - but it “buttons without gaping the whole length of the top,” Brown says.

This pick comes courtesy of Brown, who says she prefers this tunic slightly more than the Universal Standard shirt mentioned above. If you’re looking for a statement, then this tunic is sure to be a standout with thigh-high slits on the sides. (Hint: There’s a lot of Everlane and Universal Standard on our list.) To help, we organized their recommendations by different price points below. So we asked more than a dozen stylish women about their favorites - from ones that offer that classic oversize Oxford shirt look to those that definitely don’t look like your father’s button-downs.

No one wants to be swimming in fabric just to be able to wear a button-down.” Since many button-downs nowadays promise a foolproof no-gap fit, it can be hard to tell which ones actually do if you’re a D-cup or higher. That’s all to say that finding the right button-down can be tricky if you have larger breasts as Kate Sokolov, co-founder of clothing company Social Goods, puts it: “The options are usually either way too boxy and oversized or too tight and gaping. There are two kinds of gap - one limits how far you can button up, the other creates an opening between buttons, exposing your bra. Fixing the latter takes more than just a safety pin. But if you have a bigger bust, those buttons can present a problem - namely, boob gap. The button-down is one of those easy-to-throw-on essentials that works just as well underneath a blazer as it does worn open over a bikini.
