In order to make educated decisions when buying a new dress shirt, it helps to understand its parts and construction. This will help you decide what you like and help you pick out shirts that are well made.
First, lets discuss the parts of a shirt, from top to bottom:
Collar:
- The upper part of the shirt, that goes around your neck. These come in varying spreads and types. Collars should be chosen based on the formality of the shirt and the shape of the wearer’s face.
- Some collars are made with an interlining, while those made without are called a “soft collar”. The interlining should be made of a quality material that doesn’t shrink too much after being washed.
- Well-made shirts should also have a pocket stitched into the underside, directly beneath the points of the collar, for collar stays to be inserted. This pocket should be stitched with a high stitch count so that it doesn’t tear.
Yoke:
- This is the piece of fabric across the upper back of the shirt. It is used to anchor the collar, back part of the sleeves, and lower back of the shirt together. Because it is a point that is placed under stress as you move around, a quality shirt will have a yoke made of a doubled up piece of shirt cloth. This will ensure that there is enough material to stand up to the stress at the outside shoulder, where the sleeves area attached.
- The yoke can be a single piece, or split. A split yoke has a seam up the middle, allowing the two sides to be sewn at a bias. This creates an interesting contrast in a patterned shirt, though it will affect the overall strength of the yoke, as it could tear at the center seam.
Pleats:
- Just below the yoke, on the back of the shirt, there may be pleats. Shirts without pleats have a “plain” back.
- Side pleats are located within an inch or two of the sleeve seam (depending on how wide the back is). These can add a tiny bit of extra space in the area just below the shoulder blade.
- Center or a box pleat is located in the center of the back. This can help to break up the fabric across the back of the shirt, especially on larger men.
Placket:
- The placket runs up the center of the shirt and is the part that contains the buttonholes. The different types of plackets are French, traditional (or English), covered, and studded.
- The French placket is dressier, making it ideal for the business suit. On a French placket the shirt cloth is folded over, with the buttonholes cut and sewn through the doubled up piece of cloth.
- The English placket features an extra strip of cloth stitched over the top of the end of the shirt, where the buttonholes will be. The holes are cut and sewn over both pieces of cloth. Generally this is considered a more casual because of the addition of the extra piece of cloth.
- The covered placket is appropriate for use with a tuxedo and other more formal attire. The construction is similar to the French placket, but the buttonholes are sewn underneath, thus concealing the buttons from view.
- The studded placket is made like the French placket, but instead of large buttonholes, both sides of the shirt have small, stitched holes through which shirt studs can be placed. This is also used for formal wear such as tuxedos.
- One other variation is called a convertible placket and consists of both buttons and a hole for a stud to be used.
Sleeve Placket:
- Moving down the shirtsleeve, there is an opening cut just below the elbow. Similar to the front, this is another placket. This opening allows for extra room at the forearm.
- It can be made with an extra piece of cloth over the top like the English front placket, or with the cloth folded over, like the French front placket.
- Plus, it allows you to roll your sleeves up.
Cuffs:
- This will be covered further, but the cuff caps off the shirtsleeve and keeps it from extending onto your hand. Well made shirts have cuffs that with an interlining of good material, in between two layers of cloth. They can also be made “soft”, with no interlining. This works best with heavier cloth.
- Cuffs come in many different types, and like collars, are meant for different levels of formality.
- Barrel cuffs are the most casual, but double button barrel cuffs are appropriate for a business suit.
- French cuffs, or double cuffs, are more formal, but can also be worn with a suit. They feature a cuff that is longer and folded back to meet the top seam of the cuff. They are then clasped together with some sort of cufflink.
- Turnback cuffs are a nice alternative to the French cuff, and are also more formal than the barrel cuff. Also called “cocktail cuffs”, these are folded over (turned back) to meet the top seam of the cuff, but are fastened with buttons.
Tails:
- The shirttails are at the bottom, and vary in shape based on the designer and the formality.
- Dress shirts have longer tails in front and back, that rise at the sides to meet the side seams. These help to keep the shirt tucked into trousers.
- Casual shirts should have less of a dramatic rise at the sides, or no shirttails at all.
- Some shirts feature an extra piece of fabric sewn at the corners of the seams where the shirttails meet the side seam. This called a gusset, and there is much debate about its value to shirt construction. In theory it strengthens the seam to prevent tearing, but in reality may be mostly ornamental as a tear in this location is very uncommon. They are generally found on more expensive shirts.
Stitching:
Stitching on a high quality shirt should feature a very tight stitch, or stitches per inch. This will make the seams stronger, and therefore less likely to rip. Single needle tailoring is considered the gold standard which includes two rows of sticking on a flat felled seam. Its benefits are both cosmetic and functional as a shirt with single needle tailoring looks more smooth and is more resistant to puckering and is also more durable than double needle tailoring.
Buttons:
- There are many options for shirt buttons; and just as many opinions about them.
- They can be made from plastic, wood, horn, mother of pearl, and other materials.
- Some expensive shirts are made exclusively with mother of pearl buttons. They can be identified by the cold feeling, when touched to a sensitive part of skin, like the underside of your wrist. The downside of mother of pearl is that they are very fragile, and may break when washed.
- Most shirts are made with faux mother of pearl, plastic buttons. A well made shirt will have thick buttons that are less likely to break.
As always, style rules are written in pencil, not ink. Play around with it, be daring, show some personality, and discover your own style.
To your style,
B&R