The Search for the Perfect Dress Shirt – Alfani Red Fitted

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)