Retail options for white dress shirt?
Getting married in 3 weeks. Have a nice navy Brooks Brothers MTM suit, black Allen Edmonds park avenue oxfords, and a navy silk grenadine tie. I was so focused on researching my suit/shoes/tie that I dropped the ball on the shirt. I don't have time to do a MTM shirt (I think).
Anything good (read: sufficient) at retail around ~$100? Am I underestimating how much one should cost? I bought one from BB for $118 just to have, and I know Sid Mashburn's shirts are $165+. Are these prices inflated at all for what I could get elsewhere?
I'm not even sure what features or details to look for in a white dress shirt. So, if there's a guide for that, though I haven't seen one, I'd love to read. Location-wise, I can hit any retail shop in the broader DC metro area.
6 Replies
Congrats on your wedding!
Is there anything wrong with the one you bought from BB?
Okay so dress shirts... the most important part as always is fit. Shoulders, chest, waist, length, arm length, arm width (from shoulder to cuff), collar circumference. Right? And that will be part of how it looks and feels inside a jacket and tucked into the pants.
There's a million other options but those are all ... well maybe not gilding the lily, but maybe cinammon dusting the chocolate. The details are nice and matter to many people and add a lot but most of them don't matter to anyone else, and none of them are worth a damn if the chocolate (shirt fit) isn't good!
For me, the most important immediately obvious part beyond fit (and how it fits when tucked in) is collar shape and structure. There are a million shapes out there, and what works for you may not work for someone else. That's roughly as follows: collar height, and the shape of the collar points (outside angle, inside angle, and length as measured on either edge.) Then it's stuff like stiffness (when stiff) or roll shape (when rolled), material thickness, collar stay length, and if button-down where the buttons attach. Specific details might be fused vs (hand-)stitched. Similarly for the cuffs, thickness and shape, and if you pay enough $$$ fused vs hand-stitched. For some shirts, pattern matters here (but generally not white dress shirts -- it would matter if it's a formal shirt with marcella, but 99.999% of solid white dress shirts are a plain weave, usually poplin, sometimes broadcloth.)
The other obvious one is fabric. 100% cotton is standard (linen and/or silk are possible as blends or 100%, though silk is rarer and has downsides, but I would avoid all synthetics here.) But there's a million kids of 100% cotton. I would tend to recommend a well known fabric like Thomas Mason, workhorse stuff at a decent price. (Or another example, people love sea island but it costs twice as much.) Then you have thickness, which for example, I think my tailor has Thomas Mason in white or ice blue in like 6 different thicknesses, ranging from "I sweat like a pig in anything that doesn't make me feel naked, good luck washing this without ripping it" to "I hear you're cold all the time, let's get that fixed" and that's just for poplin (broadcloth adds another range to it, sort of.) Cloth selection even within a single style (poplin) matters to the wearer for temperature control, creasing, ease of cleaning, longevity, etc. Plus of course you may just like one cloth over another, I know when I picked cloth for my formal shirt, one was obviously the one I wanted ...
But everything beyond that is just detailing. Things like one cuff button or two, button placement, placket size and thickness, buttons on the front, materials (like MOP), box pleat on the back, etc etc etc. Lots to choose from... if you care.
Thank you!! And no! Lol, I just bought one in my size just to have because I realize the clock is ticking and I didn't have one. In other words it was more or less a placeholder in case I don't find something better in the meantime. It's still folded/packaged, I haven't even tried it on yet.
Holy moly
It's easy to get lost in the weeds
Just put on your shirt, tie a tie, and see if you like it
If it needs tailoring, you have 3 weeks, so get to it. If not, rock on. If you want to find something you like better, figure out what you don't like about yours and go searching
I'm still iterating my own shirts to get "the perfect shirt" but they're totally great. I just want to change the collar shape a bit.
Generally suggest a basic, semis-spread point collar, with healthily large points and tall collar, for most people. Keep it simple, don't sweat the details, don't do shit that's too trendy or too costumey, that is all. Don't care at all about cuff details and so forth. Nice standard fabric, sturdy but not like cardboard.
Thanks a lot @gimp . Healthy amount of info here to get started. I feel like starting by looking at different collar shape points and collar heights will be a good direction. My entire aim is to have a very classic appearance, so definitely staying away from trendy and costumey looks
Btw this was the one I grabbed from BB off the shelf when I picked up my suit. It was the only 100% cotton I could find in the store, everything else has 3% spandex https://www.brooksbrothers.com/supima®-cotton-poplin-ainsley-collar%2C-dress-shirt/ME04536_____WHIT_15H__33__.html
Supima® Cotton Poplin Ainsley Collar, Dress Shirt
Brooks Brothers
Looks like a solid shirt!