Claire’s Pick of the Best Asymmetric Tops

Bianca showed up to brunch in a one shoulder asymmetric top, silk, the kind of drape that only works if you’re built exactly like her, and I told her it looked unfinished, like the other sleeve got lost at the dry cleaner. That started a real argument, the kind that outlasted brunch and followed us into the parking lot, because she thinks I only like things with two matching sleeves out of fear, and I think she’s been getting away with a fashion choice that would end most of our lives.

Here’s my actual problem with the asymmetric top, and it took me buying four of them to figure it out. Half of them are perfect under a jacket, the drape falls flat against your side and nobody’s the wiser. The other half turn into a fabric event the second you add a blazer, the extra length on one side rides up your arm and bunches at the elbow like it’s trying to escape, and you spend the whole meeting adjusting it and hoping nobody notices you fighting your own shirt.

I search for these secondhand constantly, mostly because the good ones, the ones with an actual designer’s construction behind the asymmetry, cost real money new and show up on resale for a fraction if you’re fast.

I’ve got a saved search that pings me at 11pm on weeknights, don’t ask me why, I have a theory about sellers listing after their kids go to bed and I will die on that hill even though I have zero proof. Found one two months ago, JW Anderson, one shoulder, and I refreshed the listing so many times my thumb cramped, then it was just gone, sold, and I sat there furious at a stranger I will never meet who apparently also has a saved search and better reflexes than me.

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I did eventually win one, a draped Zero and Maria Cornejo piece, checked the interior seam and the label placement before I even looked at the price, that’s just the order my brain works in now, and it turned out completely legit and completely worth the three weeks I spent chasing it.

I’ll say the honest thing though, because pretending otherwise would be lying to you.

This is not a top for everyone. If you’re not used to fabric doing something interesting on only one side of your body, it can look like you got dressed in a hurry in the dark, and on the wrong frame it just looks lopsided instead of intentional. On the right person it’s the best thing in the closet. I still don’t fully know which person I am some days, and I bought it anyway.