Sample Results

Description:

A modern shirt fitting that provides shape without being too close to the body. It's look is youthful and professional if well fitted.

Semi-fitted shirts have a more youthful appearance provided the wearer has a normal to slightly over weight frame. Classification: Business, Business Casual, Casual.

Dress: Fit for Sample

A poor choice of shirt silhouette/fit has the power to undermine an otherwise great look. An ideal fit for dress shirt should display a smart and savvy appearance. The shirt you’re buying should always fit well around the chest. It shouldn’t be so loose that it makes you look shapeless, but nor should it be so tight that it looks like it strains every time you move. When you fit your shirt, move around and examine how the fabric looks when you move your arms or when you turn. If it doesn’t look like it’s struggling with your body, but it’s still tapered nicely around your chest, you’ve probably found the right shirt. Lastly, the shape of your shirt's hemline gives you an indication of how ot is designed to be worn. If it's hemline is round it is designed to be worn tucked in, straight hemlines can be worn either way.

Dress: Fit

The fit of your shirt is dependant on your physique. Just remember, that a well-fitted shirt still allows you room to move and to breathe. You do not want a shirt, that is so tight or firm across the chest that your buttons are pulling. This can often happen when a bit of weight...or muscle is added to your torso.

A shirt can not be let out at the sides, but a shirt can be taken in if you find to get the right neck or sleeve length you have had to purchase a fuller cut. This is handy to know if you don't have options and are short of time to spend looking.

Fundamentals of Wearing

Dress shirts should fit snug around the neck, allowing two fingers to be inserted side by side.
A dress shirt should extend 1 inch (2.5cm) above the back of the jacket collar.
The habit of loosening one's tie and unbuttoning the top shirt button often results in forgetting to redo it before seeing clients.
Short-sleeve shirts should never be worn with suits.
Never roll sleeves up above the elbow.
The correct tie knot should be used for the width of the shirt collar points.
The placket of the shirt, the belt buckle, and the trouser fly should all line up in an unbroken vertical line. Sleeves rolled to just below the elbow indicate a professional hard at work, while sleeves rolled above the elbow are stereotyped as belonging to those lower down the ranks who do the manual labor.
If your shirt has 'tails' it cannot be worn out.
Use the looser button on your cuff to allow for your watch.

Dress shirts today come in all manner of hues, values, and intensities. While modern-day professional dress allows for greater freedom to display personal taste, it is ultimately the man who errs on the conservative side who will be considered most professional.

Solid Colors

The solid white dress shirt is considered the most professional in the business world, closely followed by light blue. The "white collar" shirt was a status symbol indicating that the wearer toiled in an environment free of dirt and sweat. Other workers wore blue-collared shirts to help hide the dirt.

Patterns

Pattern shirts are as prevalent today as solid-colored shirts. While a solid-colored shirt is seen as the most professional, stripes are second, followed by checks and plaids which lead to casual wear.

Most pattern shirts fall into the realm of business casual.

The hierarchy of pattern shirts can be determined by the following elements:

Background color: the closer to white, the more professional the color
Color of stripe: the more conservative the color, the more professional the look.
Number of different colored stripes: the fewer colors, the more professional the look.
Width of stripes: the finer the stripe, the more professional the look.
Width between the stripes: the narrower the distance between the stripes, the more professional the look.