Some garments don't need to shout to be noticed. When Inditex chairwoman Marta Ortega appeared at the General Shareholders' Meeting in a simple men's-style white shirt, black trousers, and minimalist accessories, she said exactly that. While trends change every season, she once again leaned on a piece that has resisted time for more than two centuries - and that, in fact, carries one of the greatest symbolic weights in the history of fashion.

The story begins with a scandal. We have to go back to 1783, when the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun portrayed Marie Antoinette dressed in a simple cotton shirt known as the chemise à la reine. Instead of the heavy brocades, silks, and corsets typical of the French court, the queen appeared in something almost intimate - closer to underwear than a court gown. The reaction was instant: the aristocracy was shocked, and the painting had to be withdrawn from the exhibition within days. But it was that very scandal that marked the beginning of a transformation - comfort began to stand against rigidity.

Through the 19th century, the shirt remained an almost exclusively male garment - a symbol of purity, status, and respect. Only men of means could keep those shirts impeccably white at a time when laundering was an enormous effort. And then came Coco Chanel, who understood before everyone else that female elegance need not be built solely on corsets and voluminous gowns. She turned the white shirt into a declaration of independence.

From that moment, the shirt became the uniform of a new femininity. Katharine Hepburn wore it with confidence, Lauren Bacall with high-waisted trousers when few actresses dared, Audrey Hepburn turned it into a synonym for relaxed elegance. Later Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Princess Diana, and Carolyn Murphy proved that few pieces age as well as the white shirt.

Psychology explains why it still dominates offices, boardrooms, and international presentations: the white shirt communicates authority. Rather than competing with the person wearing it, it directs all the attention to their face, speech, and presence. The color helps too - white is associated with clarity, order, and honesty, among the most effective tones for projecting trust. It's no accident that Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney, and Meghan Markle return to it in their most important moments.

Its greatest virtue is its universality. It works with a suit, with straight jeans, with a midi skirt, even with linen trousers on a summer holiday. Change the shoes and accessories and the same shirt moves from a work meeting to a casual dinner without losing a shred of elegance. And it ages beautifully - photographs of Carolyn Bessette from the nineties and of Audrey Hepburn decades earlier still look entirely current today. Two centuries after Marie Antoinette's scandal, the white shirt means exactly the same thing: freedom, confidence, and an elegance that never has to prove anything.