When it comes to dress shirts it is vital to have shirts that fit you correctly. The three most common fit issues are:
Fit of the waist, too much/not enough fabric
Sleeves too long/short for your arms
Collars that are too loose/tight
Slouching shoulder seam
These are the areas you need to pay attention to when you’re buying your next dress shirt.
Fit Of The Waist
Dress shirt shouldn’t have fabric hanging over the waist of your pants. On the other end of the spectrum, you don’t want your shirt skin tight like a muscle tee. If your shirt is too small, wrinkles will start to form around the buttonholes. If the shirt is too loose, a muffin top will begin to form around your waist from the excess fabric.
How Long
Your dress shirt sleeves should end at the break of the hand, where your wrists meet your palms. If its too short your shirt sleeves will push too far back if you raise your arms. Too long and your sleeve cuff will begin to bunch and fold on your hands.
Neck Fit
A shirt collar that doesn’t fit is the worst. If it’s too small it may choke you out before you're done wearing it. On the other side a massively oversized collar. You know the look, turn your head and you can see the shirt label on the back.
Your collar should fit close to your neck. There should be just enough room for you to run two fingers between your collar and your neck when its buttoned up. If you’re wearing a tie, think of the collar of your dress shirt like the waist of your pants. If you have pants that are too big and you put a belt on, the waist will begin to bunch-up. Same with your collar.
Shoulder Seam
Your shirt’s shoulder seam should hit you right on the top of your shoulders for a clean, tailored look. If you are going to something more oversized, this seam can be relaxed a bit and fall over the top of your shoulder. There are many different ways of wearing a dress shirt, but when it comes to a clean polished look, we recommend your shoulder seams hit right at the top of your shirt!
Lucky for you, at UWM Men’s Shop learning how a dress shirt should fit is easy. We have shirts from Eton, Tom Nox, Givocci and others that off the rack will fit you the right way. If any alterations need to be made to ensure the perfect fit we can take care of that as well will our in house master tailor Anwar. A good shirt is the first building block to a good outfit - and inversely, a bad shirt can ruin a good outfit! Let us walk you through everything you’ll need to have the right shirts and build your outfits the right way! With quick turn around times in our tailoring, you can have your new shirt in no-time! Come see us today!