Things to Know About Tailored Shirts

A tailored or dress shirt is the shirt worn underneath the suit jacket. This shirt can be the accent to your jacket or the centerpiece to your whole outfit. An ill-fitting tailored shirt will make you look sloppy and disheveled while a properly fitting shirt will make you look sharp and well-kept. 

Fit

• A dress shirt should be comfortable to wear above all things. If it’s not, then it’s either too small or too big. When trying on a tailored shirt, you should be able to fit two fingers in the collar while it is buttoned. The wrist cuffs should be tight enough around the wrist to be unbuttoned to slip the shirt off. The sleeves of your shirt should not have more than one inch of fabric bunching near the cuff when you have your arms to the side. Finally, you should have room to be able to pull out one to three inches of fabric in the chest area.

Fabric

• When you purchase your tailored shirt, there are different types of fabric you have to consider. Depending on the fabric type, your shirt may need to be tailored differently, which may mean higher expenses. Cotton tailored shirts allow breathability, durability, smoothness and shape. Its pricing can depend on the pattern or the company it is distributed from. Tailored shirts with man-made fibers such as polyester are lower in price that cotton shirts but tend to wrinkle and may cause you to sweat. Man-made fabric shirts also tend to lose shape and wrinkle quickly. The most luxurious fabric would have to be silk. Silk shirts will lightly drape over your body and have a slight sheen. The material is soft and the price is high. Unlike cotton or even man-made shirts which can be machine washable, silk must always be dry-cleaned. It can also be very delicate which means its durability is low.

Patterns

• The pattern or color you choose will determine the formality of your dress shirt. If you choose solid primary colors such as white, blue or black you can wear these shirts under your suit jacket or alone with suit pants. Bolder colors such as nice deep plums or aqua blues add a nice contrast to a black or dark suit jacket. Plaids, stripes or checked shirts are not as formal and can overpower the shirt. If you tend to go for patterns, these are for more casual events and can be paired with a pair of dark jeans.