Shirts and Collars: The Rounded Collar

The short, stiff round collar has been an obligatory part of the Eton school uniform since the mid-nineteenth century


Originally a separate stiff white collar that attached to a banded collar shirt body, early on the collar signified membership in one of the world’s most exclusive men's clubs, hence its moniker name, the "club" collar. The famous arrow collar ads in the early twentieth century helped to elevate this style of collar to the pantheon of classic dress shirt collars.

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Custom Shirts: The Fit

With the exception of the Italians, who border on the fetishistic relative to the fit of their dress shirts, most men wear theirs too tight in the neck, too short in the sleeve, and too full around the wrist.

The explanation for this is relatively simple: successive washings shrink the collar size and sleeve length, while most manufacturers allow enough cuff width for a large Rolex-sized watch to drive through.

The collar

Unless its collar fits comfortably, the best dress shirt is useless. With the top button closed, two fingers should be able to slide comfortably between the neck and the collar of a new shirt. Most fine shirt makes add an extra half-inch to the stated collar size to allow for shrink age during the first several washings.

Should the collar of a new dress shirt fit to perfection when first tried on, return it or risk being strangled before too long.

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The Solid-Colour Dress Shirt

Although pure white traditionally been the color of choice for a basic dress shirt, medium blue actually flatters more men’s faces than white

Pure white can drain away what little natural color men exude. Television producers will advise male guests to don a blue dress shirt to compensate for the studio’s strong lighting, which tends to flatten and weaken the complexion.

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