1.  Button up your shirt, all the way up to the top bottom. Now slide two fingers between your neck and collar. They should fit comfortably. Not your fist!
2. When you move your arm in a dress shirt, the sleeves should be long enough so that cuffs do not ride up your wrist.
3. The cuffs of your shirt should just be tight enough that they do not hang over your hand. You should not be able to slip into shirt sleeves without first undoing buttons on the cuff. (Don’t wear a big thick divers watch beneath any cuff – keep it slim!)
4. Make sure your shirt is comfortable and not too tight, check that the shirt does not pull uncomfortably across the shoulders, chest or waist.
5. Check the buttons of your shirt; they should be secure, no loose threads and well-placed with no gaping holes exposing your chest hair or waist. (Anyway you should always wear a shirt -T, it will make any shirt sit better and absorb any excess s-w-e-a-t)
6. To check the proper shirt length of your shirt, raise your arms and make sure that shirt tail does not come out of your pants. Remember tuck the shirt tails between your legs as you pull up your pants.

MORE Tips for even a better fit:

• Your shirt may shrink. For this reason, make sure the collar of a brand new shirt has a half inch extra room or it will become too tight. 

 • Check the fabric content of your shirt. Finer dress shirts are made of two-ply, which make the fabrics stronger, softer and wrinkle less.

• Inspect the seam running down the side of the shirt for smoothness and make sure it does not pucker. A high-quality shirt has only one line of stitching visible on the side seam, while most mass market shirts have two visible rows of stitches.

• Examine the shirt sleeve a couple of inches above the cuff for a gauntlet button that closes up the sleeve. A gauntlet button and a horizontally placed buttonhole usually indicate good craftsmanship.

• In striped shirts, check how stripes are aligned. They MUST match making a straight line.

 • The collar of a great fitting shirt should be firm and crisp. It should not be limp and under no circumstances should have any wrinkles or bubbles (puckering)

• The design of the fabric should match where any two pieces of fabrics meet. For example where sleeves meet the shoulder.

• The collar of a fine dress shirt should be constructed in two pieces and hand turned.

• The buttons of a high quality shirt should be sewn with a cross locked stitch to ensure your buttons stay firmly attached.

• Best quality men’s shirts have a two-piece yoke (the part that covers the shoulders). 

And finally, if you don’t know how to starch and iron a shirt you had better get your shirts laundered!

 Adapted from Janine Giorgenti article ‘How to buy a mans custom shirt’ 2006 

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Men, Style. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.