Modern Tailor | Buying the Perfect Business Shirt

Buying the Perfect Business Shirt

Buying the Perfect Business Shirt

(By Leah VDeguzman, blog)

Whether youâre an investment banker, graphic designer, business owner, teacher, government worker, or just got out of Uni, you would need a decent looking dress shirt that will help you present yourself with credibility. There are thousands of selections out there, dress shirts with prices ranging from $40 to $300, made of various fabrics and carrying different brands.

Here are a few criteria youâd need to consider when selecting dress shirts:

1. The Illusive Perfect Fit â This is the most important factor. A tailored look will enhance anyoneâs appearance. It will be awkward to show up on a business meeting wearing a shirt with shoulder seams reaching up your elbow. Or imagine sitting down for an interview, sweating and nervous, not because youâre not qualified but because the buttons on your shirt might pop any minute as the shirtâs just too tight.

a. The shirts collar should be big enough to fit 2 fingers while itâs buttoned up.

b. The shoulder seams should be on situated at the edge of the shoulder.

c. The shirtâs sleeves should reach up to the wrist bone when the wearer folds his arms.

d. The shirtâs length should be long enough to be tucked in properly so it would not be pulled up easily when the wearer sits down.

e. There shouldnât be too much excess fabric around the stomach when the shirt is tucked.

The most common issue with ready to wear dress shirts sold in department stores or boutiques is that even if the sizes may vary, areas of the shirt like sleeve width and armhole size often have standard size fit all measurement. Tall and thin men will have baggy appearance because the sleeves are made for ânormalâ sized biceps. Meanwhile, when shorter and more muscular men buy department store shirts, they will find the sleeves are too tight because the smaller sizes are built for smaller arms.

Tailored fit shirts give you comfort and confidence. Currently there are a lot of online solutions that enable customers to get this tailored fit at very affordable prices. Modern Tailor (www.moderntailor.com) for example, showcases more than 1000 fabrics offering a wide range of options to customers worldwide.

2. Shirt Style â Everyone has different facial features. Hence, it makes sense to purchase a dress shirt with the correct collar type, cuff style, placket design that augment the most flattering facial feature a person has. To give some examples:

a. A man with a slightly longer face might want to wear a classic spread collar to balance whole look.

b. A man with a roundish face might like to try a 2 button Italian collar to create an illusion of length and therefore complementing the round face.

The style of the collar is a significant factor because the collar frames the face. A good source of information about men's style is Style Forum (www.styleforum.net)

3. Fabric - Comfort versus Function - There are various common fabric choices for dress shirts; polyester, polyester-cotton mix, 100% cotton, linen, cotton-silk, silk, to name a few. These fabrics have different pricing levels, polyester being the most affordable and the cotton-silk blend being one of the most expensive. The most reasonable and most comfortable option is 100% cotton. It is light enough that it breathes. Two-ply cotton is a common preference compared to single-ply.

One important term in talking about fabric is âthread countâ. Higher thread count doesnât immediately mean higher quality, but it certainly means more expensive. From Wikipedia, âThread count is a measure of the coarseness or fineness of fabric. It is measured by counting the number of threads contained in one square inch of fabric or one square centimeter, including both the length (warp) and width (weft) threads.â People buy different thread counts more because of different tastes. Higher thread counts usually are sleeker.

In terms of taste, the pattern is also an important consideration in choosing a dress shirt. Some examples of shirt patterns are: twill (diagonal pattern), herringbone (short, slanted parallel lines in alternating rows), and oxford (basket weave). Shirt patterns simply mean how the fabrics are woven together.

4. Impeccable Workmanship â From the loose threads to thin buttons, every part of a dress shirt can be inspected to see if it is made with perfect workmanship. More expensive dress shirts have thick mother-of-pearl buttons which are a shinier alternative to plastic buttons. The seams need to show flawless stitching without any excess fabric sewn in mistakenly.

5. Brand â Like it or not, brand does matter. This does not mean you have to break the bank to get a really impressive dress shirt. Brand is a symbol of credibility and consistency. Well-established brands invest in their reputation and have strict quality controls to make sure all garments produced under the brand are inspected and reviewed before being released. Good brands usually also pay more attention to customer service, online and offline.

A decent dress shirt is one of the top must-haves in a manâs wardrobe. At the bare minimum, get a white and light blue dress shirt. If you have more to spend, get a black and grey one. These four colors are easy to match and can be paired with dress pants and the regular blue jeans.

Dress Shirts by ModernTailor Moderntailor News Dress Shirt and Men's Fashion Tips

(Last updated at: 2011-12-08T16:54:56.968-08:00)

Latest Blogs

Striped Fabrics from ModernTailor (2017-07-15T01:54:30.360-07:00)

Updated Production & Delivery Times (2016-04-30T19:08:07.505-07:00)

Resolving Measurement Issues (2016-04-30T19:42:32.931-07:00)

Modern Tailor Red Collection (2015-02-17T13:19:09.992-08:00)

Understanding Modern Tailor Fabrics (2014-10-15T05:51:36.927-07:00)

Anatomy of the Collar: How to customize a shirt’s collar (2014-09-26T05:02:05.811-07:00)

Fine Linen Fabrics for Summer! (2014-06-12T18:35:50.857-07:00)

Fabric Tips | How to Keep Fabric Color from Fading (2014-06-06T20:50:20.192-07:00)

Let's get down to shoes... (2013-12-15T23:31:00.029-08:00)