About Men's Dress Shirts

Men's dress shirts are a common staple of menswear, and can be found everywhere from the White House to Wall Street to Main Street. They can be elegant, casual, formal or given a personal style.

History

Shirts were initially used in the manner that undershirts are used today, as a cool, absorbent cloth (usually linen) to be worn beneath traditional clothing. They were considered a luxury and, as with all things that show wealth, displaying the shirt itself eventually became fashionable (although scandalous at first). Production went up significantly, and we can see in paintings from the 1300s that many subjects are wearing shirts as such. In the 1500s, the collar became the most fashionable and defining element of the shirt, from being starched up and adorned with frills and layers upon layers of lace, silk and fur.

Function

A dress shirt serves to cover the torso but also doubles as an item that displays one's social status, sense of style and formality.

Features

The collar, placket, cuffs and materials are the most significant features of dress shirts. Collars can vary widely and have done so throughout time; currently a lightly starched collar folded over a tie and extending only about an inch and a half up the neck is most common. Plackets, or the row of buttons, can vary widely in width, decoration and type of button; occasionally the whole placket is covered over with another strip of cloth. Cuffs are typically plain or French; in a plain cuff, the two ends overlap one another to fasten, while French cuffs have the two ends pressed together and fastened with cuff links.

Considerations

When looking for a dress shirt, first of all consider getting it professionally tailored. It is the mark of a man who truly cares about his appearance to invest in quality tailoring. Second, consider the materials that you purchase; polyester is cheap but is considered a poor choice for a shirt. Cotton broadcloths are popular and can be very nice for a moderate price.

Warning

Linen, while a wonderfully lightweight summer cloth, wrinkles intensely, so if you are choosing a shirt for an important first impression, linen will wrinkle dramatically under your jacket and as soon as you sit down. Cottons are more resistant to wrinkles, and you can purchase treated cloths to resist wrinkling.