Blouses are quite hard done by. I think it’s the word and its associations. Blowsy (problematic). Big girl’s blouse (v v problematic ). Some people try to get around this by calling their blouses shirts. But the two are quite different. 

A shirt is crisp or heavy or both, has a collar or a Nehru neckline and is unisex. A blouse is light and decorative. Its collar can go any which way or disappear altogether. Also, self-evidently, a blouse is feminine. Or it was. Now, obviously, it can be whatever it wants to identify itself as. A skirt, for instance. Although why it would want to is beyond me because skirts have had their ups and downs recently, what with dresses having edged them to the very margins of society.

Anyway, as JK Rowling might say, we all know a blouse when we see one. Often they’re a bit floaty, or lacy, or chiffony and see-through. I think that’s another of their problems. They’re not viewed as cool or minimalist. But they’re having a revival.

I’ve noticed in some circles, Gen Z men co-opting women’s blouses – the New Romantic kind – just as they did in the 1980s and, come to think of it, the 1790s. So nothing new there then, even if the modern co-opters think they’re being outrageous. The thing is, and it’s hard for me to admit this (can’t men let us have anything to ourselves?), they look beautiful in them.

Fashion designers, being a bit susceptible to, well, fashion, have noticed the Gen Z male’s penchant for a ruffled, poet-sleeved blouse and have begun turning their attention to them again. This naturally means some blouses now cost £2,000 – not a typo.

We don’t need to concern ourselves with these since you almost certainly can’t put them in a hot wash, or do anything much with them at all. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some of the prettiness of blouses.

What I love about the one I’m wearing here is that it’s in an almost unimaginably soft corduroy, which gives it a bit of structure, so that it holds its boxy cut. This gives it a contemporary smartness if you wear it loose. But it’s supple enough to tuck in too, without bulking or bunching. Cord, like velvet, defuses colour so a twee pink becomes a non-twee pink. And a pie-crust collar, which could look beyond twee, especially on a non-Millennial, or a, you know, woman, doesn’t.

It just looks elegant and as if it’s meant to be, like the cornicing on a fine ceiling. It will also look very nice peeking out of all those jumpers you can’t quite bring yourself to stop wearing because it’s still chilly.

In other words: this blouse is an excellent early spring find. Something you could wear on a night out, or to work, or at the weekend just about 12 months of the year.

Top image: Lisa wears a corduroy shirt, £135, ME +EM; cropped jeans, £165, ME +EM; leather belt, £39.95, Massimo Dutti; velvet shoes, £245, Olivia Morris at Home; jewellery her own