How To Buy A Dress Shirt That Fits

The seam where the sleeve attaches to the body of a fitted dress shirt should hit close to the top of your shoulders. Mass brands tend to cut their shirts too large (to fit more people, of course), and so you'll often see the seam sliding down onto the arm. If the shoulder seam is riding up towards your neck, that's an indication that the shirt is too tight, and usually due to the shape of the armhole.

how to buy a dress shirt that fits

The best dress shirts fit comfortably around the chest, under the armpits, and across the upper back, giving you a full range of motion. A fitted shirt will feel snug, but not too tight. Your chest should "fill out" the shirt in a way where your body is discernible under the fabric. Note: If the buttons pull when you're standing still with your arms down, it's too tight.

Men's dress shirts should taper from the chest to the waist, following the contours of the body and creating a clean line (i.e., no excess fabric) between the shirt and pants when tucked in. A great fitted shirt often has two vertical back darts centered over the small of your back, which allows the shirt to taper at the waist.

Fitted shirts have a high armhole, allowing for a tapered sleeve that follows the shape of your arms without excess fabric. When buttoned, the cuff should fall right at the base of the thumb (there's room for some personal preference here). Just like your chest, your arms should fill out the sleeves of your shirt in a way that doesn't leave excess fabric. Excess fabric in the sleeves will often fold and billow giving an unflattering look.

It doesn't matter if you're short, tall, slim, or athletic - a fitted shirt is much more flattering than the alternative. Now that you have a good idea of what fitted dress shirts should look like, find your Hugh & Crye perfect fit, and experience what it feels like to wear a great fitting shirt off the rack.

A dress shirt is an essential garment even though a suit jacket usually covers it. And these days, if you take off your blazer, the dress shirt defines your appearance.

You need not worry, however, because this guide will provide you with all of the information that you need to not only select a dress shirt that looks and feels great but to also build a collection of dress shirts that will be the perfect focal points for countless stylish outfits.

At its most fundamental level, a dress shirt, also known as a day buttoned shirt, is a garment that features a collar and full-length opening fastened with buttons or studs. Traditionally, this shirt was effectively an undergarment, always being worn beneath a waistcoat and jacket. Nowadays, dress shirts can be worn without additional garments, although within the Classic Style, it is still conventional to see dress shirts usually paired with jackets.

Because dress shirts are available in a wide variety of styles, colors, and cuts, they can vary greatly as regards the situations or occasions for which they are appropriate. A pink and white striped dress shirt might be the perfect complement to a summer suit while on vacation in Italy, but it would not be appropriate in a professional office setting, like a law firm.

Dress shirts can range in formality from the very casual to the extremely formal. In general, how casual or formal a dress shirt is depends upon the cumulative total of the relative formality of its parts.

Said another way, the inclusion of certain features that are either very formal or very casual can skew the overall formality of the entire shirt. All of the major features of a dress shirt will be discussed in the following guide, with information about the relative formality of these features. With this information, you will be able to determine, by looking at the shirt as a whole, how casual or formal it is.

Conversely, some collared shirts with full-length buttoned openings do not function stylistically as dress shirts, and therefore are not included. These primarily include shirts that would traditionally not be worn with a jacket and were often worn without neckwear.

These include sport shirts, which are essentially very casual dress shirts, and work shirts, which are designed to be functional rather than fashionable garments. These shirts are often distinguished by their materials, which tend to be hardwearing fabrics like denim or flannel.

Most off-the-rack dress shirts are sized according to the circumference of your neck and the length of your arm. These two measurements will often be expressed together, such as 16 & 32, the former being the neck circumference and the latter the length of the arm.

Consider, for instance, that if a dress shirt sleeve length were cut exactly to the length of your arm, it would sit very tightly against your skin and roll up or down depending on your arm movement. Therefore, tailors add in a certain amount of excess fabric to accommodate movement, as well your personal comfort and overall style.

How much additional fabric is employed is the central component of the conventional fits for a dress shirt, which vary according to styling, comfort, and your own body shape. Arguably fit is the most striking and important feature of a shirt; if your shirt is ill-fitting, none of the details will matter.

While a slim fit shirt is less comfortable and often more constricting in your movement, it is a lot more fashionable because it eliminates excess fabric. A slim fit shirt typically has an accentuated back with darts and a high armhole stance allowing for a shaped look that sits closer to the body, without being skin tight.

Understanding color theory will allow you to integrate your dress shirt color perfectly into any outfit, but in menswear, the most common shirt colors you will encounter are white, off-white, and blue.

Because the white dress shirt can often come off as somewhat cold, the off-white dress shirt offers a similar color option with more warmth and visual interest. Off-white dress shirts can pair with most of the colors that can be paired with white, but is best set off by earth tones, blues, and warm colors.

A blue shirt is the most conventional way for you to add color to your shirt collection. Nearly every shade of blue, from powder blue to navy blue, can be easily integrated into most Classic menswear outfits. It pairs especially well with gray, red, and brown.

As mentioned, dress shirts can come in any color, but not every color is a good option for a dress shirt. You will be well-advised to focus on starting your dress shirt collection with the above-mentioned colors and then expanding your wardrobe to include other colors that fit in well with your larger wardrobe.

The most common pattern for a dress shirt is a simple solid color. This solid base makes it easier to match the shirt with other articles because you do not need to worry about patterns clashing. Provided that it is in a neutral color, a solid shirt is the most formal of dress shirts.

Dress shirts can feature stripes in a variety of styles, colors, and densities. The stripes are usually vertical but can also be horizontal. Striped shirts create unexpected visual interest without appearing, in most cases, overly flashy. A striped shirt is extremely versatile and can be dressed up or down depending on the other elements of your look. The color, styling, and detail of the stripe will dictate the overall formality of the shirt.

Shirts with checks are the most casual of the common dress shirts. Checks can come in a variety of densities and colors and can range from nearly invisible checks to blatantly bold checks. Because a dress shirt constitutes a large portion of your visual bulk, balancing a checked dress shirt with other garments like a jacket or tie requires a nuanced grasp of the rules of menswear.

The weave of a dress shirt refers to how its fibers were woven. At its most basic level, weave determines how breathable a fabric is: a denser weave is less breathable while a looser weave is more breathable, and so the former is generally better suited to colder climates and the latter to warmer.

Because dress shirts were traditionally worn with a jacket, it was relatively uncommon for traditional dress shirts to feature any pockets. The exceptions were dress shirts worn during the day, in which case one breast pocket was occasionally featured to provide temporary storage.

The French placket is a more polished alternative than the traditional placket, and therefore it is the choice for evening shirts. It is a very simplistic style that is achieved by folding the fabric over itself inwards. This technique results in a clean shirt front without any stitching. As the name implies, it is associated with a European aesthetic and is the go-to choice for a more modern debonair look. Although traditionally more formal, the French placket can be worn with classic, fashion, or casual shirts today.

Darts are folds sewn into the dress shirt to minimize excess fabric and to help provide localized shape to the garment. They can appear on the back or the front of the dress shirt, and depending on their relative width, can be very noticeable. Darts are primarily employed in dress shirts to cinch the waist and give the entire shirt a more slim appearance, and as such, they are most often seen on dress shirts with more modern styling.

For men with very athletic builds, such as broad shoulders and hips with a trim natural waist, dress shirts often puddle around the middle because of excess fabric. Darts can be an excellent solution to this problem, allowing for a trim silhouette that is tight at the waist without constricting the hips and shoulders.

Pleats are gatherings of excess fabric that help provide a greater range of movement and generally improve comfort. Although traditionally seen on trousers, shoulder or back pleats on shirts help to guarantee a large range of movement in your arms, and they cause minimal disruption to the overall appearance of the shirt. 041b061a72