Mens Dress Shirt Fabrics - Solid Colored Shirts - Semi-Solid - Stripe - Check Shirt Fabrics
& Weaves
Hi.
Iím Antonio, and today weíre going to be talking about menís dress shirts.
In particular, weíre going to be talking about menís dress shirt fabrics.
All right.
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All right.
Dress shirt fabrics.
So letís jump into this.
Solid, the most common fabrics on the planet.
And as you can see here, Iíve got white top left tan corner, dark blue top right, light
blue bottom right, lavender over here bottom left.
Solid fabrics are what youíre going to see on most dress shirts and thereís a reason
for that.
Solid fabrics are incredibly easy to match and they are the most formal.
So a white shirt incredibly versatile; you can wear that with a black tie if itís the
right style or you can wear that with a pair of jeans.
So, very wide range of clothing that can be with it.
In addition, they can match almost anything so this light blue over here in the bottom
right hand corner, this will go with the charcoal gray suit, this will go with a pair of raw
denim.
This will go with ñ how you could wear it with even a pair of shorts assuming that you
got the style right.
Now, once we start getting into darker, solid colors, the formality of the shirt falls.
So, dark maroons, this dark blue, all of a sudden, the shirt is no longer as versatile.
It becomes more of a casual wear color.
Lavender, this is something ñ itís really underutilized and I put it there because it
is a great choice and one that because of its light shade, itís still a very versatile
fabric.
All right.
Semi-solid, the most underutilized fabrics in a manís wardrobe if you even have them.
And youíll see weíve got a couple herringbones here.
Iíve got herringbone I put to the left over ñ actually two herringbones in the left.
Now, over here to the right, weíve got a more complicated pattern, itís a Glen Check.
And this is something ñ what I love about this semi-solid is from a distance, theyíre
going to look solid.
And so they have the same versatility of the solids but when you get up close, you can
see the pattern, this white here in the bottom right hand corner.
Most of you wonít be able to see that it does have a check pattern and unless youíre
viewing this in HQ, you probably donít actually see that.
So, going from semi-solid to now stripe patterns.
So this is very clear that there is a pattern to this.
Now, the vertical stripe as it ñ and you donít see them going because the reason you
see a vertical striped often on a shirt is it gives the illusion of slimming the figure.
So, this shirt if itís cut right and if it fits a man well, will usually make a man look
a bit thinner.
In addition, it helps the color bleed into the trousers and why thatís important because
it gives you a monochromatic look.
So, these two bottom blue shirts, you could easily wear these with a nice pair of blue
jeans, some raw denim or a pair of dark slacks and itís going to look good.
If you wear this one over here on the top left, it will still look fine but theyíll
be more contrast between the top and the bottom because white is the dominant color up here.
But the great thing about white being the dominant color up here on this top left hand
corner when itís going to be a bit more versatile.
You could actually wear this shirt in a business setting.
This bottom two, you could but theyíre going to be more casual.
Now, over here to the top right, this gets a bit more complicated.
So if you look at the shirt, itís got actually five colors in it.
So weíve got the light blue, a medium blue, weíve got a very dark blue and then weíve
got ñ looks like an oranges ñ orange brown.
And look at the difference, weíve got thin stripes, weíve got wider blue stripes and
weíve got a complicated pattern actually in the white in which we see a very ñ looks
like a honeycomb weave.
So, because of the complexity of this fabric, I wouldnít be hesitant if youíre in finance
in New York to wear the shirt.
However, if youíre working over at Google, youíre working over down, you know, at a
ñ in a creative field down Los Angeles, youíre down in Austin, Texas.
This would be a great fabric to pull off in any but the most formal vacations.
Itís really going to standout and be a unique pattern.
Check patterns, these are the least formal of all of the patterns that weíve talked
about.
Over here to the top right, this, you know, would be something that you could wear in
a business environment.
Itís simple, only two colors, white dominates.
Bottom left hand corner, we can see that the blue dominates.
And these two bottom fabrics would actually be fine to wear.
If youíre going to be wearing the shirt by itself without a jacket.
Over here to the top right, unless youíre wearing a light pair of trousers, youíre
going to have too much contrast and itís going to look best with the jacket.
Over here to the left, because we introduce the color red, all of a sudden this becomes
a bit less formal and ñ because mix with the complexity of the pattern, Iím going
to say that this one is ñyou wouldnít really want to wear this with a suit.
You could if youíre not wearing a tie with it and if youíre in a very informal environment
or well, I think overall, this would actually look great, again, with just a pair of trousers.
And the reason being is because of that red, itís going to be a fabric that you donít
see very often.
Itís going to help you standout.
Quickly, letís talk about weaves.
And so imagine these are individual yarns in a fabric.
If you go north and south, thatís the warp, up and down.
Across from left to right, we see the left.
And the ñ how these are woven together depends on not only the strength of the fabric but
usually some of the patterns weíve seen as well.
So, these are the four most common shirt fabrics.
Actually, I take that back ñ the pile weave you rarely ever see in the shirt fabric but
the twill, the satin and the plane particularly the twill and the plane theyíre going to
be a 90% of dress shirts.
The plane is something you see ñ you see all the time, very simple.
As you can see the warp goes right over the left, one two, one two.
The twill is a bit more complicated and whatís interesting about the twill is you actually
get a denser weave.
Now the twill if you remember, thatís going to be herringbone fabrics and it does create
a very unique pattern.
I really like twills because theyíre usually stronger; theyíre a little bit more heavy
weight.
Satin ñ now, this is where youíre going to get a bit of a shine.
As you can see the warp in the left, thereís not a one two, there is a jumps over four
different yarns here.
And this is going to give you a bit of shine in the fabric.
Now, quickly the pile weave, this is going to give a fabric kind of a three dimensional
feel, a very textured, heavy feel.
So, if you think about a corduroy, thatís an example of a pile weave.
All right.
Well, that is Menís Dress Shirt Fabrics in a nutshell.
This has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style.
I hope to see you at the work site.
Take care.
Bye-bye.