What goes into the making of a superior dress shirt? "The devil is entirely in the details," writes The Wall Street Journal. "Like the wine market, the ready-made men's shirt world is crowded with products of varying style, quality and substance ... The differences can be subtle -- an extra stitch at the back of a button, a bit of glue inside a cuff -- but those intricacies determine the way a shirt feels against the skin and how it looks after being cleaned."At Charvet or your neighborhood consignment shop, how does one spot quality? Fabric first, one connoisseur tells The Journal. "It should be firm with a smooth feel ... A consumer can check the density of the weave by holding a shirt to the light ... Light will only partly penetrate a shirt if it's made of quality fabric with a dense weave."
Also check the cuffs and collar for a bit of slack between the outer and inner layers of fabric, and the firmer interior material. "A customer should check that the pocket's stripes or checks are aligned with the background pattern ... The yoke and sleeve lines should match; and the collar stand -- the piece of cloth below the collar that holds the top button -- should line up with the front of the shirt."
To boot, a shirt's seams should have a minimum of 15 stitches per inch. The tail should be long enough to stay tucked into a pair of trousers when a person raises his hand, and the side seams should be reinforced at the intersection of the two parts of the tail with a piece of cloth called a gusset.
any tips for good, affordable slim fitting dress shirts. I am not even that skinny a guy but I have a hard time finding shirts that don't have tons of extra cloth under the arms and along the sides or shag off the shoulders. I wear Tyrwhitt slim fit, or Hugo Boss is slimmer than most, or other slim fits I find at dept stores, but haven't found something consistent. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAt least for work purposes, you can't go wrong with Brooks Brothers slim and extra-slim fit, both of which you can find at BB's online clearance sale going on right now!
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to try the BB extra-slim fit, although I already have too many dress shirts. Their slim-fit isn't really that slim - what can I say, my waist is 29" - so I'd be interested in seeing what "extra-slim fit" means.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, half the shirts in my rotation are either CT slim-fits or Boss's. CT's cuts are pretty consistent as long as you stay in the same line - I find that their non-iron slim-fits are cut differently from their normal slim-fits. Hugo Boss differentiates between classic fit and slim fit as well.
If you don't work in a suit-and-tie environment, I might even suggest getting the Express fitted shirts. Are they of the highest quality? No. They are, however, friggin' slim, and when bought at the right time are only about $20 a pop.
Hope that helps a little.
great tips, thanks TCB and kyph
ReplyDelete