The Search for the Perfect Dress Shirt
Shopping for an affordable, well-fitting, and easy to care for dress shirt can be maddening. Most dress shirts fit like snuggies. Many of them wrinkle so badly in the wash that you’re better off spending a small fortune on dry cleaning. And more often than not, even after you’ve spent the money to get them tailored, dry cleaned, and pressed, they still feel uncomfortable and bulky underneath a well tailored suit.
There’s really only five simple criteria that make up the perfect, basic dress shirt:
- Semi spread collar
- Button Cuff
- Athletic fit
- Somewhat Wrinkle Resistant
- Available in Multiple Color / Stripe Options
Finding an affordable brand of dress shirt that accomplishes all of that seems to be about as likely as stumbling across The Lost City of Atlantis in Lake Erie. Kinda a tough task.
That’s why we’ve launched Dappered’s Search for the Perfect Dress Shirt. Is it probable that a shirt which meets all five of those criteria is not only affordable but also widely available? We’re not holding out hope. But in order to find those shirts that get close to perfection, we’ll be trying on as many brands as possible. Got a suggestion? Send it our way and we’ll put it to the test. Here’s our first suggestion:
Alfani Red “Easy Care” Texture Stripe Fitted Oxford – $26.99
Pros
- Amazing fit. No need to spend the money on tailoring
- Sleeve length is perfect
- Very affordable and widely available
- Textured/raised same color “stripe” gives unique depth.
Cons
- Not as “Easy” to care for as you’d think. Wrinkles in the wash.
- Collar could be a little bigger…
- Color options beyond white are risky
- Textured stripes could be too modern for some
(Available at Macys and Macys.com)
Having just bought three of these shirts, I wonder how you get away with saying the fit is perfect? I guess maybe on you. I had to dig through the piles to find the 15/35 shirts for the longer sleeves, and then I had about 3-4 inches taken out of each side of the shirt by the tailor to make them fit. Yes, I bought the “tailored fit” Alfani.
They’re comfortable though.
Fair enough… I purchased a 15.5 34/35. And I’m 5’9″ around 165lbs. What I consider to be average height/weight/build. Fits perfect on me. And there’s no way I’d be able to take three inches in at the sides. Did you purchase Alfani RED or regular Alfani fitted shirts? From what I’ve seen, Macy’s makes Alfani, Alfani Fitted, and Alfani Red. Are you pretty lanky? I’d imagine finding anything on either extreme would be difficult…
So is the RED is more modern fit (i.e. slimmer) than the regular Alfani fitted shirt? I’m 5’11 and 170lbs so I’m on the lanky athletic side of things.
I believe so… yes. The Red is their overall much slimmer line. If you’re going to order online, go with their RED label.
Thanks! Good advice.
Dan
You might want to consider http://www.tailorfactory.com for this series of posts. I had a custom shirt made by them and it fits amazingly. The fabric is very high quality too. The only downside was that it took around six weeks for it to arrive, straight from Bangkok.
I’m 165 but 5’11” so finding a shirt that fits is really hard. My tailor just keeps telling me he makes them custom.
HA! I got yall beat by a long shot, I’m almost 6’4″ and not even 155. Fitting me is not even that hard, believe it or not 32 x34 pants fit perfect, shirts are 16 34/35, and i definitely don’t shop big and tall.