How To Find The PERFECT Dress Shirt The Ultimate Guide To Buying Perfect Fitting Shirts
[0:00:00] Have you ever seen that guy? You know which
one I’m talking about, the one wearing the dress shirt that just makes them look bad.
The fit is off. The pattern, the fabric is just wrong for him. The style is dated. Gentlemen,
I don’t want you to go out there spending your hard-earned money on dress shirts that
don’t make you look good. In today’s video, I’m going to give you
three guidelines that you can use to buy the perfect dress shirt for you.
[Music] There are only three steps to buying the perfect
dress shirt for you. They’re pretty simple; fit, fabric, function. And that’s where
it gets a little bit tricky because although that is simple - that’s my style pyramid,
I’ve talked about it before, still so many men mess it up. So, in today’s video I’m
going go into a lot more detail with each of these so you can follow along and you go
out there and you buy a dress shirt that just makes you look great, it makes you look like
a million bucks, and enables you to do what you need to get done.
First stop gentlemen, let’s talk about fit. Fit is king. I can’t stress that enough,
fit is king. Of all the three things that I want to talk about, if you don’t get the
fit right, nothing else matters because you can go out there and spend good money on a
shirt, but if it’s too tight in the neck area, if it’s spreading right here in the
chest area, if it doesn’t fit you in the shoulders, it’s a waste of money. It’s
– there – it’s just not something that you can compromise on. So, make sure even
if it’s an inexpensive shirt that you got at goodwill and get it – make sure it fits
you properly. It doesn’t matter that it costs just a few bucks or if it costs $500,
if it doesn’t fit you, it’s not a shirt that you want to keep or even have in your
closet. Now, when you’re wearing a shirt that fits
you like this shirt from you right here, what I look at shoulder points. The shoulder points,
they need to come right at your shoulder points. If they go way too low where they come up
here towards your neck, it’s wrong it’s the fit just you can’t go with that shirt.
If you put your hands down, put them out right there and the sleeves are too short, then
it’s a bad fit. Either too long you can get that maybe adjusted a bit, but if they’re
too short, skip it. If, again, you have the buttons basically opening up right here in
the chest area, well, congratulations you’re lifting weights probably looking good there,
but that’s too tight in you in the torso, you can’t go with that shirt. Shirts can
be brought down a bit, but they don’t have excess material to be let out, so you want
to make sure you find that shirt that fits you properly.
Now, one of the key things that you need to know are your own measurements. I do think
if a man knows his measurements which is going to be, you know, various, you know, shoul
-- I’ll list them down in the description, but you want to have your shoulders, your
sleeve length, you know, chest, torso, all of that if you know that that’s going to
help you a lot. Find shirts that fit you. In addition, maybe go out there, measure your
best fitting shirts, but when you know this information, you can more accurately zero
in on the shirts that are going to work for you because if you’re just going by medium,
understand different brands put out different mediums and if you’re hard to fit, this
is even more difficult. Now, some of you guys are wondering, okay,
Antonio, I can never find a shirt to fit me. Well, guess what? Today’s video is sponsored
by Tailor Store. I have been working with them for a year and I love their shirts guys.
I used to own a custom clothier. You guys probably know I used to make custom suit [shoes]
to make shirts. I got out of that business because companies like Tailor Store are doing
a better job than I was. These guys are awesome. Guys, what you’re going to love about Tailor
Stores especially if you’re big, if you’re small, if you are hard to fit is that these
shirts are made custom to your measurements. Perhaps my favorite part about Tailor Store
is they are perfect fit guarantee because the first time I got a shirt from them I got
it back and I was like, ah, it’s just a little bit short in the sleeves, I may be
would have made the shirt just a tad longer. For me, the fit of the shirt I love my shirt
just being a little bit extra longer. I sent them those details I said can you make these
adjustments. They said, sure, no problem because this is a service we provide. If you have
an issue with the fit, it’s not what you expect, simply ask them to make those adjustments
and they will remake the shirt for you. In the description of this video, you’re
going to find a discount code, 40% off gentlemen, that – it’s an amazing discount. They’re
doing this because they want you to try them out. I wear these shirts, I was at my own
conference, I’m wearing their shirts. This one right here is made from linen, it’s
beautiful dark blue. I also have this one, you can probably if you click in the link
you can see the photos in which I’m wearing some of these shirts. So, the fabric selection
everything at Tailor Store I can’t stress it enough, a great company. I’m going to
link to them down in the description. Take advantage of that discount code, it’s not
going to be around forever. And, guys, let’s get back to fabric.
Point number two gentlemen, let’s now talk about fabric. So, with fabric when you look
at this right here, white classic dress shirt, this dark blue that I’m wearing right here
made from a linen and I’ll get into the fabric types and the weaves and stuff here
in a second. But, right now notice this is a dress shirt, this is not technically a dress
shirt, this is going to be more casual, so the lighter colors; white, light blues, some
of the ones the pastels as well. Those can be considered dress shirts.
[0:05:05] Dress shirts in general are going to be very
simple. This right here is a classic white dress shirt. Now, when you’re looking at
a dress shirt, you’re looking at the fabric, again, you want to go with solids when you’re
building your base. And I do think that blues and whites and variations of such are where
you want to build the base of your first ten shirts. The key point here is stick with your
solids stick with your bases, don’t try to bring in a lot of fabrics with complex
patterns. You can start to do that once you’ve got eight shirts, ten shirts, fifteen shirts.
The reason is complex patterns larger patterns are harder to match. They’re going to be
more memorable and you – they’re not going to be as interchangeable.
Now, I have nothing against checks and I think checks are great especially smaller patterns.
Smaller patterns can be worn and I think fit into an interchangeable wardrobe, but once
you start going, you know, small patterns like this one right here, I could get away
probably with wearing this maybe twice in a week if let’s say I was on a travel conference.
But, a fabric like this or a paisley or a, you know, a large dot, or a very thick stripe,
this is very memorable and although I love the shirt, this is something that I could
only wear once at an event maybe once a month to work because people will remember it, they’ll
notice it, it’s memorable. Also, when you see something with louder colors, when you
see those dark reds, when you see those dark green shirts, understand those are casual
shirts. Now, let’s talk about fiber type. So, you’re
going to see cotton. Cotton is the most common shirt fabric out there and for good reason.
It’s durable it can take a number of dyes. It is something that is proven it can be ironed,
it can be shaped. So, when you see Egyptian cotton, when you Sea Island cotton which you’re
actually paying for is one that’s got a little bit longer strand when it was grown
and that’s great because it means it’s going to be able to create a tighter weave
more durable fabric. When you see a hundred percent cotton, that’s usually a very good
thing. Now, this shirt right here I talked about
is made from linen. I love linen especially if it’s of a higher quality because it’s
usually going to be more breathable, it’s great for the summer. It also has a little
bit of a rougher texture. This one right here has been woven in with a black and a dark
blue, so it gives this navy type of look, but when you get up close you can start to
see the texture and I like that in my fabrics. When you see something out there that is using
a synthetic, I’m not going to say it’s bad because synthetics have come a long way
in the last decade to two decades. If you see something that’s a blend, understand
that the only, you know, what they’re doing there is they’re trying to mix things together
to be able to get some great properties to it. So, we see – you will see sometimes
when they take a cotton and they mix it in with a synthetic fabric, what they’re looking
for is oftentimes a little bit of stretch to have it so that it’s going to basically
stand up and maybe maintain its color maintain its shape. That’s when you start to see
non-irons as well. Be careful though with silk. Silk is a luxury
fabric, I don’t like silk in shirts, what I would rather you go for is a tighter higher
– higher weave maybe like a luxury cotton that looks like silk it’s going to have
the durability of cotton. Silk, you have to send off to the drycleaners unless you’ve
got a lot of money for that or you really just want silk, yeah, I guess you could go
for it, but I – I really don’t like silk shirts.
Now, the different ways that fabric is woven together is going to affect the properties
and basically a lot of the look of the fabric, so I’m going to give you three of the most
common. First off let’s talk about the plain weave. This is where we’re going to see
broad cloth, this is where we’re going to see poplin. So, most white dress shirts are
going to be using a plain weave. Why? Because you’re using one color of fabric and it
gives it it’s nice very simple, you know, I look at this it’s got a nice sheen to
it, it’s got a very nice drape. Now, if we were to go over and we look at
twills that actually creates a little bit of a tighter weave. It starts to create patterns
in the fabric, hence we see that in twill fabrics. We see herringbone patterns and other
patterns like that in twill fabrics. Also, twill fabrics are very durable.
Next stop let’s talk about basket weaves. So, basket weaves are very similar to plain
weaves. Instead of the one yarn that’s going in and out, one piece of thread that’s going
in and out, what we see are multiple threads that are being basically wrapped together
and oftentimes of different colors. This is why we see with oxford fabrics, we see from
a distance from like two feet, it looks like a solid fabric. When we get up close, we start
to see a white in there, we see various patterns. And white mix with the blue is oftentimes
where we see this type of weave. Next stop, let’s talk about the function
of the dress shirt. Do we want it to be casual? Do we want it to be formal? And therein lies
the style of the dress shirt. The most important style aspect to me is the collar. Why? Because
the color frames the face. It is something that even if you’re wearing a jacket over
that shirt, they will still going to see the collar. But, if you’ve got a really thin
face or you’ve got a really round face, you want to be careful because it’s these
extremes that the wrong collar type can just make your wide face look wider or your thin
face look thinner. So, what you want to do is bring balance.
[0:10:06] Now, you also want to pay attention to the
style, so let me talk about each of the collar types. I’m not going to get into all of
them which if you want more the support article, I’ll link to down in the description, goes
into all types of collar types. But, let’s start off with the point collar.
One of the most common shirt collars out there and the reason being is it works with neckties.
Now, what you’re going to see with the point collar is the angle is oftentimes going to
be much less than 90 degrees and this works fine when you’re wearing a necktie underneath.
The issue with the point collar is if you’ve got a long face, you want to be careful of
one that the points are going down too low, so be careful of, you know, a point collar
that it goes down to 60 or 50 degrees. Now, spread collars, they go beyond the 90,
we’re talking 110, 140 degrees. So, with that, I like those if you’re going to be
wearing this casually. Now, be careful if you’ve got a round face, wide collars can
make you look bad, but if you’ve got a – you really like a big large necktie knot, wider
collars could work for you or in my case, I don’t really wear neckties much anymore,
so it’s something that I like the wide angled collar because it stays out of the way.
Now, other types of collars there are specific types. There are button down collars. This
comes out from the polo fields started off with casual shirts, you will see this on some
shirts, but this is always going to be casual. You’ve also got hidden button downs, you’ve
got pin collars, tab collars. Understand that those are all going to be more casual. At
the end of the day, most of the shirts in your wardrobe should either be point collars
if you wear a lot of neckties or could be spread collars because if you don’t you
want them out of the way. Now, one last thing about collars and this
is what I look for in a high quality shirt with collars is it’s going to have basically
collar stays. Collar stays like it sounds they maintain the bones the structure of the
collar so it gives you a nice point. Some companies are going to sew that in and I get
it because they realize most men don’t want to deal with this, but if you’re interested
in this I think it’s a great thing to have removable collar stays. In this case, Tailor
Store sends extras with all the shirts they send out and this fits perfectly right in
there. I like plastic stays because if you accidentally
wash the shirt with the stays, not going to do any damage to the shirt. If you go metal,
be careful always remove them because it can actually damage the shirt.
Next stop, let’s talk about shirt cuffs. So, like the shirt collar, the shirt cuffs
are something that people will see even if you wear a jacket over it. So, I think it’s
pretty important to nail these to make sure that they are of good quality that they look
good that they’re well-pressed whenever you wear them.
Now, the particular styles there are three common styles out there. The most common one
by far is the single button cuff like what I’m wearing right here. What you’ll see
on a lot of these especially ones off the rack is they’re going to have two buttons.
What that means is that basically you could cut one off and you can go with the one that
fits you well or you can keep both there because if you happen to wear a watch you can actually
expand it out and therefore it’s going to work for you.
Now, after this you will also see French cuffs and those are going to be on a more formal
shirts or on custom made shirts. And a French cuff is going to be where it’s got a longer
cuff that folds over on itself and it has no buttons and that it has to use a piece
of jewelry known as a cuff link to hold the cuff together. I do like these and I think
that they are fine for more formal events or for a man who just simply want – wants
to add a bit of style and wants to get away from the normal cuffs out there.
Now, this cuff right here is a two-button cuff, this is pretty rare, but I think it’s
more common in the custom world. I like this because it’s a small indicator this is a
custom shirt without being, you know, overly pretentious.
So, a few other style details that you want to pay attention to - pockets. I don’t like
my dress shirts with pockets. I think pockets are more casual and so, if you’ve got a
shirt with two pockets right here on the front and they’ve got basically flaps on them,
understand it’s a very casual look. It’s not wrong, it is just a casual look not belonging
on a dress shirt. Epaulettes, these are leftover from military
history. I think they can look good in building up the shoulders, but again they’re going
to be casual and they’re going to be something you don’t want to see on a really nice dress
shirt. Now, this right here is known as the placket.
There are three common types of plackets out there. We’re going to see this type of placket
where it’s just folded over. We’re going to see a plain no – non-existing placket
in which it’s just simply the fabric that goes over. Other times we’re going to see
a covered placket. A covered placket is where you wouldn’t even see the buttons right
here because they would actually be covered by another piece of fabric.
All right, gentlemen that is it. I know that was a lot of information in today’s video.
If you want more, go check out the support article, I go into a lot more detail there.
I’ll have pictures, illustrations about a lot of the stuff I talked about. I will
go into certain topics that I wasn’t able to cover in today’s video because I just
want to keep this a little bit more condensed. And don’t forget, go check out Tailor Store.
I’ve got a discount for you down in the description, 40% for first time customers.
Guys, this company is amazing, I’ve been with them for a year. I’ve got a number
of their shirts. These shirts are just amazing quality, it’s a great deal. I just think
it makes dressing sharp easier and when you dress sharp, you basically are able to send
the message you want to send. Gentlemen, take care. Hopefully you enjoyed
this video. I’ll see you in the next one. Take care.
[Music] [0:15:38] End of Audio