Sometimes bad fitting destroys the beauty of a good dress shirt. Men should learn these few tips to get the appropriate mens dress fit to avoid fitting blunders.
An ideal fit for dress shirt should display a smart and savvy appearance for the man. For a formal event, mens dress shirt should provide a ceremonial effect that suits the occasion. If you intend to create dressy attire, fitting in different parts of the suits should still be suited to give you that dressy feel.
Collar Fit
The main focal point of the dress should start under the mens face the collar. Most dress shirts run their collar size by half inches such as 14, 14.5, 15, and so on
Measuring the right collar size should be based on the neck dimension just below the Adams apple. If the neck circumference is about half inch, then it would be a good idea to get the higher end to prevent too tight collars when the fabric shrinks.
Most men buy dress shirts with too wide collars. Collars ought to be snug around the neck. Snug means that it should not squeeze or give you a choking feeling especially when you bend your head down to touch your chin to your chest. There should be just enough room for your head to move around the neck.
Other way to find out the tightness of a collar is by slipping two fingers between the buttoned collar and the neck. The two fingers should fit comfortably, and this additional space gives room for possible shrinkage after a few washing of the dress shirt.
So the collar fit should not be a perfect fit when immediately tried on and neither should it have more room than the two fingers you slid in. Otherwise the fit in the collar would be inappropriate.
Collar points have to touch the chest when worn with a tie. It should never leave a gap or stick up between the collar points from the chest especially when you turn your head.
Sleeves and Cuffs Fit
There are two lengths of dress shirts in every collar size to accommodate a wider range of arm length in men. Men wearing dress shirts with improper sleeve lengths can actually make a man look funny.
So to achieve a good fit for your sleeve, it is important to check the sleeve length. Proper measurement should run the tape from the centre of the back of your collar to the top of your shoulders then down to the arms and the wrist bone.
An extra inch will allow an extension of about a quarter inch when worn with suits. It will also provide additional fabric to avoid cuffs from pulling back when you extend your arm in any direction.
The proper way of fitting mens dress shirt is to keep your arms on your side and make sure that the cuff ends are slightly further down the wrist bone without gathering to much fabric at the cuffs. Armholes should float over your armpit rather than a tight snug.
Cuff circumference should not allow your hands to slip in without unfastening the cuff buttons. This applies both for barrel and French cuffs. Bespoke dress shirts should have room for a wristwatch and should not fit too tight or snug.
Torso Fit
A good fit around the torso is an important criteria in mens dress shirts. There are different types of cut such as the American, French and English.
American cut is the fullest, next is the tapered look for the French cut and the English cut is somewhere between these two. Whichever style of cut you choose, the most important is to have comfort with style.
Lately, the trend of dress shirt is the tight tapered look. It gives an overall lean and clean feel for slim men. But this is not suitable for everyone and some men do not like its wrapping feel.
Most importantly, a good fit in mens dress shirt should be full but will not cause the front panels to gape open when you sit down. This only shows that the fit around the torso is too small.
The seam that connects the yoke and sleeve should rest just where your shoulders end. If it drapes over it, then the shirt is over sized for you.
And lastly, the tail length should fall just around your crotch are. It should never pull out of the trousers whenever you raise your arms or when you sit down. Proper tug-in is important to prevent looking sloppy and untidy.
Pohl regularly writes in mens fashion. He has over 100 articles published on dress code advice, and mens for men. He is also the founder of one of the Internets premiere Tie Shops: Ties-necktie.com - Weather you are looking to buy neckties or are interested in a mens fashion blog, the site might be worth a visit.
