Where Is the Shirt?

Perhaps the COS brand of minimalism has gone too far.

By Eliza Brooke Jan 19, 2018, 12:58pm EST

COS’s “slim-fit shirt” rises, ghost-like, from the aether.

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To visit the COS website is to enter a sensory deprivation chamber where everything is done in shades of light gray and white, from the product descriptions to the seamless backdrops against which the models pose serenely, like seahorses drifting in the tide. In it, you may find the perfect structured dress or kooky red sock that adds the right dash of color to your otherwise minimalist outfit. In it, you may lose your mind.

“Where is the shirt?” you mutter to yourself, squinting at a product photo of a “shirt with drawstring neck.” It has been photographed against COS’s standard pale gray background and, to your surprise, has completely disappeared into it.

A white long sleeved shirt with a drawstring neck. — “Shirt with drawstring neck.”

“Where is the shirt?” you demand, simultaneously furious at the difficulties of shopping in the online era and appreciative of COS’s dedication to Agnes Martin-like subtlety.

A tunic-length white shirt with a bib front. — “Oversized shirt with bib front.”

Your anger turns to cold fear as it dawns on you that perhaps COS’s website, like its Soho store, is haunted by ghosts. Perhaps COS never intended you to see the clever design details that make this white shirt so much more than a white shirt.