Timeless and elegant, easy to wear, chic and cool: The white shirt remains a must have basic for every wardrobe, male or female. Several major designers have presented their interpretation for the summer 2009, sometimes intricately detailed, other times masculine.

We spoke to the king of shirts, Hilditch & Key who have been dressing big names for over a century, from Nicolas Sarkozy to Karl Lagerfeld.

We also spoke to Karl Lagerfeld, who had this to say about white shirts:

"People always ask What would you have liked to have invented? Most people say jeans, but I would have liked to have invented the white shirt. Unfortunately it has been around for a while."