"well-woven shirt with an obviously selected weave, collar, cuff and placket style."

^ This is more important than having wrinkles or not, or the shirt being old or not... Any Joe Schmo can have an ironed, bright white shirt...

"And if we look at shirt-making as an artform and an act of craftsmanship, then we began to sense the possibilities of making this staple…something special".

This rings true, hand work on shirts I find really attractive. Hand stitched shoulders and yoke seams add real soul to a shirt. Even if no one else notices, I love those little attentions to detail.

When I was first in the workplace I wore ONLY white poplin shirts and white pocket squares. Maybe it was a semi conscious nod to Cary Grant style minimalism but this was the nineties so my ties were all brightly coloured.
When I finally took the plunge into a blue shirt - bought to wear with a beige summer suit as I reckoned a white shirt would wash me out - I saw the benefits and now have almost exclusively blue shirts (stripes, ginghams, basket weaves, end on ends, herringbones, PoWs etc.) Blue is much more flattering to a pasty blondie like me and I find I very rarely reach for a white shirt. Anyway I recently got a sky blue PoW suit against which a blue shirt would provide almost zero constrast so I recently picked up a white one in royal oxford from Tyrwhitt and I really like it. The texture might not be visible from more than a few feet away but it’s a bit less boring than a plain ol’ poplin and bridges the gap nicely to be worn with a suit and tie IMO without going too far over towards the less formal white OCBD.

My favorite white shirt is in Sea Island, great touch and it washes really well. Don't know who made the cloth but the shirts by Inglese so I expect it'd be a good maker.

Sea Island Experiment? The Island of Dr Shirteau?

The real question is are there really any looks for men or indeed women anymore? It seems like the women's clothing industry with it's disposable and renta-fashions has broken the traditional fashion cycles we've been accustomed to for centuries. The purpose of fashion, or at least a principle purpose of fashion is to have a standard look which is then done better or worse by individuals applying their own individual interpretations (or lack of an interpretation). One wonders if the white shirt as a fashion statement has also been torpedoed?

Not a subscriber but I get the gist.  I think never have we all, collectively thirsted to be so individual as right at this moment.

I fully admit my love for bland, unnoticeable, uniform-like business wear with my ubiquitous navy suits, patternless shirts, identikit Hermes ties bought from their airport boutiques on unmemorable business trips, combined with straight-laced C&J oxfords and some very conservative Cordings covert coats and shooting jackets.

(And if you want, I would be glad to publish some extra post on that style here on FNB)

But it is MY style, I well very comfortable in it, it suits me, whereas many other variations (and I have tried them all) don't.

I therefore can fully relate to that comment about the French.