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Step 1
The only way you can be certain to get the perfect fit is to find a custom shirt maker who will take your measurements and deliver a high quality shirt. Most nice department store men’s departments and independent retailers offer custom shirts in a variety of styles and features. But there are many really nice shirts you can buy stock that look and fit nearly as well for a lot less money, depending on how hard you are to fit.
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Step 2
If you are really trying to impress someone, only wear French cuffs with nice cuff links, a spread collar and no breast pocket. If you’re like many people who place impressing others as secondary or at least no more than equal to functionality and practicality, then a breast pocket can be very useful, especially in professional environments when a suit jacket is rarely worn.
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Step 3
Look at the collar. It should be much thicker than a single layer of cloth, at least double thickness. It should lay flat and not curl up at the tip of the collar. Also, the collar should be fused so that the different layers of cloth cannot move against each other.
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Step 4
The next obvious thing to notice is the buttons. Really nice buttons are mother-of-pearl and are slightly larger, both wider and thicker. They last a lot longer and look a lot better. Buttons that come close to matching the color of the shirt are especially tasteful. Cheap plastic buttons are much more difficult to button and will break easily under a hot iron or after a relatively small number of uses.
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Step 5
The cuffs are much like the collar. Good cuffs will be thick and fused. The button (or cuff link) holes will be bound with precise threading. Also, you will often see higher quality shirts will have longer cuffs—3 inches instead of 2.
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Step 6
Really nice shirts stay tucked in better because they have longer tails—both in front and back. So look for the length of the shirt tail, which will probably require you to try it on.
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Step 7
While you’re trying on the shirt, notice whether the sleeves seem to balloon a little at the cuff and at the shoulder to a lesser degree. This extra material is what prevents the sleeve from shortening after a half dozen or so launderings. You really don’t want to invest in a dress shirt that changes shape and size after you’ve only worn it five or ten times.
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Step 8
The platen is another important component of a nice dress shirt, which is the strip where the button holes are made. This length of material needs to be well tailored and strong to endure throughout the life cycle of the shirt since it receives a lot of extra wear due to buttoning and ironing.
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Step 9
The yoke is one last area to inspect. From the back collar down to the back and shoulder to shoulder is the yoke. The best shirts will have a split yoke for better fit and the distance between the collar and the seam where the yoke attaches to the back will be longer than a cheap shirt. The yoke will also be double layered and the layers will be fused together.
