Lisbon, it turns out, has been low-key cosplaying as a Breton fishing village this whole time. I went for a long weekend and came back with lots of photos of stripes, on the floor, on tiled walls, in shops, cafés. Absolutely nothing to do with my actual shirts, and yet somehow everything to do with them.
Turns out when you spend your life around navy-and-white stripes, you start seeing them everywhere, especially in a city that’s been flirting with the Atlantic for the last 800 years.
So consider this a very unofficial exchange programme: Portugal’s coastline meets Brittany’s closet staple. Here’s what I found.
Stripes are everywhere in Lisbon
Once you start looking for stripes in Lisbon, they’re surprisingly difficult to stop seeing.
They appear beneath your feet in the city’s patterned pavements, across tiled façades, around cafés and shopfronts and in all sorts of architectural details.
Some are bold and graphic; others have been softened by years of Atlantic weather. Either way, there was something wonderfully familiar about them.
For someone who spends rather a lot of time thinking about striped shirts, Lisbon felt strangely like familiar territory.
From Brittany to Portugal
Of course, the classic Breton stripe has its roots a little further north.
Originally associated with Brittany and French sailors, the Breton shirt has travelled a long way from its maritime beginnings. Today, it is one of those rare pieces of clothing that seems to exist outside fashion trends altogether.
And there is a rather nice connection between those Breton roots and Lisbon.
Both Brittany and Portugal have long relationships with the Atlantic. Fishing, sailing, coastal communities and life by the sea have shaped their histories and visual identities.
Perhaps all those stripes shouldn't have been such a surprise after all.
Our own Portuguese connection
There was another reason this trip felt particularly appropriate: our Breton shirts are made in Portugal.
We work with experienced Portuguese makers to produce our shirts, bringing together the French maritime inspiration behind the Breton with Portugal's long tradition of textile manufacturing.
So while the inspiration may begin with Brittany, Portugal is very much part of the Breton Shirt Company story.
A city made for stripe spotting
Lisbon is a city where you find yourself looking around.
There are the famous tiles, of course, but also patterned pavements, old shop signs, tramlines, awnings, shutters and unexpected flashes of colour everywhere you turn.
And once stripes are already on your mind, the city provides plenty of them.
None of these were photographed because they had anything to do with Breton shirts. That was rather the point.
Sometimes inspiration doesn't arrive neatly packaged. Sometimes it's a tiled wall, a pavement or a café spotted while wandering around a city.
Portugal, Brittany and one very enduring stripe
A weekend in Lisbon didn't uncover some secret historical connection between Portuguese tiles and the Breton shirt, and we're certainly not going to invent one.
But it did serve as a reminder of why stripes remain so appealing.
They're simple, graphic and timeless. They can feel traditional and contemporary at exactly the same time.
Which, come to think of it, isn't a bad description of a Breton shirt either.
And perhaps there is something fitting about our Breton shirts taking their inspiration from one Atlantic coastline and being made beside another.
Explore our Breton shirts and discover the collection.
Until next time…
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