Dress Shirts for Men - Formal Doesn't Have to Mean Boring
A proper dress shirt is a button-up shirt with a collar,
long sleeves, and wrist cuffs. It is usually made from a cotton fabric woven
and dyed into various, non-obtrusive patterns and colors. By altering these
characteristics, a dress shirt can either send the message its wearer is ready
for sport or ready to meet the president.
A man’s dress shirt can elegantly frame his face during a
presentation and later absorb his perspiration during a tough round of
questioning. It can play a supporting role by enhancing his sport jacket or it
can stand alone and be the centerpiece of his outfit. The dress shirt ranges in
price from the $9.99 Wal-Mart polyester special to over $600 for a name brand
custom shirt.
A well fitted dress shirt should first and foremost be
comfortable; this is different for every man. Larger men are usually complimented
by a looser fit while petite and thin men are complimented by a more form cut.
In general, though, a shirt should:
- Allow two fingers in the collar when buttoned.
- Be tight enough around the wrist so that the cuffs must
be unbuttoned to slip them off.
- Have long enough sleeves so that you can raise your arms
like wings and not pull the cuffs down the forearm; they should be short enough
so that you don’t have more than 1 inch of fabric bunching near the cuff when
your arms hang.
- Shoulder points that extend to the end of the shoulder
and no farther.
- Have room in the chest and waist to pinch out 1-3 inches
of fabric (depending on fit desired).
When you are looking at dress shirts for men, all shirts
will fall into one of three categories: Bespoke, Made-to-Measure, or
Off-the-Rack.
- Bespoke Shirts are completely custom designed for you
based on a pattern drawn to fit your exact body size and preferences. Once your pattern is on file, you can order
new shirts any time you want simply by flipping through fabric books. You have total control and virtually anything
you can sketch or describe can be made.
- Made-to-Measure Shirts are modified based on a set of
existing patterns to adjust for your own measurements and limited
preferences. If you have a fairly standard
body type with ordinary proportions, there isn’t an enormous difference between
made-to-measure shirts and bespoke shirts.
It may or may not be worth the additional money for you to pay for
bespoke. Your pattern adjustments can be
kept on file so you can reorder when you find a new fabric you love without
needing to get re-fitted.
- Off-the-Rack Shirts are based on pre-established sizes
and limited shirting fabrics, often by neck size / sleeve size for men. For example, a 16.5/33-34 would be a 16.5″ neck
with a 33″ to 34″ arm.
Once you’ve chosen between bespoke, made-to-measure, and
off-the-rack, you need to pick a fit.
The fit you select will depend on your body type and your personal
preference.
- Slim Fit shirts are tailored in the chest, waist, and
arms for a closer, sleeker look. It has
nothing to do with being “slim” or “fat”.
If you like your clothes high, tight, and tailored, you probably prefer
a slim fit.
- Extra Slim Fit or Super Slim Fit shirts are a more extreme
version of the slim fit.
- Regular Fit shirts are typically close to a traditional
shirting fit with slightly tapered sides.
- Traditional Fit shirts are cut more like a box.
The purpose of a shirt collar is to properly balance and
frame a man’s face. It’s the most visible part of a shirt when wearing a jacket
and because of it’s proximity to the face, plays a very large role in
determining the formality and use of the shirt. For this article we will only
talk about turndown collars and its two major variants, the point and spread.
- Point Collars – The most common collar style seen in the
US is the point collar; found on 95% of off-the-rack dress shirts, it is cut so
that the collar points are reasonably close together with the collar angle being
at or less than 60 degrees. The advantage of this collar style is that longer,
more closely set points tend to draw the eye down which elongates the face.
Unfortunately, most off-the-rack point collars seek the middle ground and do
not have a small enough angle or long enough points to reap the full rewards of
this effect.
- Spread Collars – The second style is the spread or
“cutaway” collar. These collars have the points “cut away” thus the name,
revealing more of the upper shirt area; typically we see these collars with
angles greater than 90 degrees. Spread collars are excellent for the gentleman
with a medium to long shaped face, as they do the opposite of the point and
spread out a man’s features.
In any given day we only speak with a small percentage of
the people we see; the shirt you wear, in the absence of a jacket, is the most
powerful signal you are using to non-verbally communicate with those around
you. Your shirt, whether you like it or not, is speaking for you; make sure
it’s saying what you intend.
DRIES VAN NOTEN |
DSQUARED2 |
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN |
COMME des GARÇONS HOMME PLUS |
DSQUARED2 |
COMME des GARÇONS HOMME PLUS |
DOLCE & GABBANA |
JOHN GALLIANO |
NEIL BARRETT |
VIKTOR & ROLF |
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