Dress shirts

Custom Dress Shirt, Chiang Mai: the collar is the garment

Everything that distinguishes a dress shirt from a casual one is concentrated in about ten centimetres of cloth around your neck.

A dress shirt collar has to stand up on its own, hold its shape through a working day, sit cleanly between the lapels of a jacket, and support a tie without collapsing at the points. None of that happens by accident.

It comes from interlining, a layer of fusible or sewn structure inside the collar, and from collar stays, the removable strips that slot into the underside of the points. Removable stays in a properly sewn slot are better than sewn-in plastic ones, because they can be taken out before washing and replaced with metal ones if you want more rigidity.

Collar height and shape

Collar height matters more than most people realise, and shorter is usually worse.

A collar that is too short vanishes under the jacket lapel and leaves a strip of neck showing between shirt and jacket. It looks skimpy in photographs and it is one of the tells of a cheap shirt.

For shape, a semi-spread collar is the most useful. It works with a tie and without one, fills the lapel gap cleanly, and suits most face shapes. Point collars suit rounder faces; cutaway collars need a substantial tie knot to fill the spread.

Cuffs

Single button barrel cuff is the everyday default and works under any jacket.

Two-button barrel gives a slightly longer, dressier cuff.

French or double cuff is for cufflinks and for more formal settings. It is bulkier under a jacket sleeve, which is worth knowing if your jacket sleeve is cut close.

Cuff circumference matters: it should be snug enough that the shirt cuff does not slide over your hand when you reach forward, since that is what keeps the correct half-inch of shirt showing beyond the jacket sleeve.

Cloth

Poplin is the classic: smooth, crisp, and clean under a jacket. Fine twill is slightly softer with a subtle diagonal texture and resists creasing better. Both work well in business settings.

Avoid heavy oxford for a genuine dress shirt. It is a superb cloth and it is a casual one.

Fit under a jacket

A dress shirt spends its life under tailoring, so it should be cut for that. Slimmer sleeves so they do not bunch inside a jacket sleeve, and enough length in the body that it stays tucked when you raise your arms. See shirts for the range.