Dress Shirt Basics - Options

When starting up that wardrobe You’ll need to start with white. Nothing is as versatile as a white shirt. You can have a shirt wardrobe consisting of only white shirts and still be as versatile with your style as anyone else on the planet us by mixing it and matching it with any tie and jacket.

Starting your wardrobe with white shirts is easy but you’ll need several to keep looking clean before that washday comes. Three or four should be fine.  In case you want to break the ultra proper look of always wearing a white shirt, mix it up with a couple blue, some stripes, and whatever suits your fancy.  This will round out your look just as long as you can make them mix and match with your suits or sport jackets without the shirts stealing the show.

Off the rack you will see that shirts go by collar size and sleeve length. Seems simple enough, yet men have more proportions that need to be measured in order to prevent the bunching at the back of the neck and wrinkles around the chest. So if you do get the chance, I suggest going bespoke.

What are the options?

There are a lot of collars and cuffs and body shapes when it comes to a shirt. You want to get a dress shirt that looks good on you, and for that you have to start with the part of the shirt that will be seen most, the collar. You can get the pearl buttons and buy the grand cufflinks, though in reality, nothing is more important than the collar.

The most common collar, the one in which you will look good no matter what your face shape is, is commonly known as a point collar, a generic term for a shirt that has average collar points measuring around three inches in length. There are collars with more or less length, shirts with the points very obtuse and spread far apart, and there are collars with very acute points that create a tight upside down “V”. Unless you are skilled and know what looks best on you, they can end up looking a bit too affected and take away from your whole outfit. Many have written rules on what collar belongs to what face shape yet I find these rules don’t always work. So experiment and have fun.

After the collar, there are of course the decisions to go with French cuffs or barrel cuffs. There are various styles of those as well. You can go with a placket down the front, or pleats at your shoulders, though no decision will affect your look more than that of what collar you choose.