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