13 Most Over and Underrated Dress Shirts for Men - YouTube

Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!

In today's video, we discuss the 13 most overrated and underrated dress shirts and shirt details.

For many men, dress shirts are an essential part of their wardrobe.

It's probably one of the first things they put on in the morning before they go to work.

There's an endless choice between colors, fits, collar styles, cuff styles, and lots

of other details that you can and must choose.

At the moment, I have about 100 dress shirts in my collection and over the years, I had

many more.

I sold them and got new ones and so I learned a thing or two about dress shirts.

Today, I want to share with you what I found are the most overrated and underrated things.

So let's start with the overrated shirts.

Number one, pink shirts.

In my experience, pink shirts or a hit or miss.

They can look well if you have a good tan and if the pink is quite light, pastely.

They look really bad if it's a strong pink and if you choose the wrong accessories.

Most people don't associate the color pink with masculinity and so if you wear that color,

you definitely make a statement.

In my experience, pink works against you and is overrated when the

only purpose of wearing it is to get attention.

On the other hand, if you wear a very pale pink shirt because it's part of the combination,

it's softer than a white shirt and it just shows that you re comfortable with the way

you wear it, then it can actually work in your favor.

If you decide to wear pink shirts, try to stay with solid colors that are very pale

or pastely, avoid bold pink stripes because that's over-the-top in terms of color and

pattern.

Also, if you want to wear pink shirts, make sure to tone down the other items in your

outfit specifically the accessories.

The second most overrated thing are the extreme cutaway collars.

Even though these white collars have been quite popular with brands like Ralph Lauren,

they are still around today and people wear them a lot.

It's definitely an extreme look and if you wear a neckwear of any form, it just doesn't

work in your favor.

If you go with a regular necktie, you can see the band on the side and just looks odd

unless you tie an extremely big Balthus knot which ends up in a very short tie which looks

odd too.

If you wear a bowtie on the other hand, the bowtie usually covers up the area of the collar

so you can't really see the extreme cutaway style of the collar.

When you wear a suit with a dress shirt in that collar and a tie, you truly create Vs

or inverted Vs. When you have this extreme cutaway collar, it kind of throws off that

balance and usually it looks odd.

I definitely have a few extreme cutaway collared shirts in my wardrobe but I find that I usually

only wear them without a tie or with a bow tie because with the regular tie, it just

looks weird.

The third most overrated dress shirts are non-iron shirts.

I get it, most men think of ironing shirts is a huge pain in the ass so of course, if

someone promises you a non-iron shirt, you are naturally interested in it.

The problem is most dress shirts are made out of cotton and cotton inherently wrinkles.

To prevent cotton from wrinkling after it's being laundered, you need to really work on

the fiber itself and treat it with many chemicals including formaldehyde.

Now when you do that, even a high-end cotton doesn't stay soft and luxurious anymore.

It becomes cheap and also less absorbent.

It almost has a plasticky feel and touch and the problem is when you wash the shirt a dozen

or two dozen times, the non-ironing properties are literally washed away and you still end

up having to iron your shirt in order to get a clean crisp dress shirt.

The only company that I've found that provides a shirt that stays wrinkle resistant for a

long time, which doesn't mean it's non-iron, but you need to iron it less and it's from

Eton in Sweden.

Unfortunately, these shirts cost about $300 each or more which makes it

unaffordable for most men out there.

In collaboration with the high-end Swiss shirt cloth maker Alumo, they've developed an exclusive

process that allows them to create a wrinkle resistant fabric that has fewer

chemicals than a cup of black tea.

I do have one of their shirts and I've had it for years and it really does a good job

so when I travel and I need something where I know I may not have the chance to iron,

I bring it along, otherwise, I stick with regular shirts because again, you get a custom

shirt that costs less than an off-the-rack shirt from Eton.

To learn more about dress shirts, you can check out our video series here and to learn

how to iron a shirt like a pro at home, please check out this video series here.

The fourth most overrated dress shirt details are visible monograms.

Originally, monograms on dress shirts or garments were used to identify the owner.

Oftentimes, people had staff and shirts were usually white so it was hard to determine

whose shirt it was.

A little monogram on a shirt told the valet whose it was and so everyone would have the

proper shirt that they could wear and that would fit.

In recent years, online custom shirts and regular custom shirts have become increasingly

popular which provided the option to add monograms.

Now for a lot of people this is kind of a status symbol and they want to show off that

they're wealthy enough to afford a custom-made shirt or a shirt that was made for them.

Now back in the day, a shirt monogram was stitched either by hand or by machine at around

your waistband so it was never visible to anyone.

It was simply there for the people who did the laundry and your valet.

Today, people are placing the monogram on their shirt cuff, ideally in a contrasting

thread, so everyone can see that they can buy a bespoke shirt.

In my opinion, it's gaudy on the one hand and showing off is never part of a gentleman's

personality.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having a general shirt monogram.

If you want to have that, I suggest to get it in the original place which is just on

the left side on the waistband around that level and you can also get into tone tone

so if you have a white shirt you can get a white monogram so only you know it's there

and no one else or maybe you could even have it monogrammed on the inside of your collar

band that way, no one will ever see it other than you and your partner and it's a nice

thing to have but it's not showy at all and very gentlemanly.

The fifth-most overrated dress shirt styles are really bold printed patterns.

Now I'm not talking about stripes or classic patterns like checks, I'm talking about bold

floral and paisley prints which have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Technological advances and changes in fashion have allowed dress shirts to become a lot

louder and more vibrant.

I think it's a trend that won't stick around and it's something maybe that is popular now

but probably 10-15 years from now, other things will have come and gone, but your solids,

your checks, and your stripes, will remain in your wardrobe, you'll be able

to wear them, whereas the floral print is probably something that would look very dated

at that point.

The sixth most overrated thing is dress shirts that are meant to be worn untucked, especially

when you combine them with a jacket.

Honestly, I see it all the time when I go to parties or at the airplane catalog.

People promote and wear dress shirts that are not tucked in.

Now traditionally, a dress shirt was cut so it was longer in the back and front so it

was less likely to come and tucked but is also shorter

on the sides so it looked extremely unflattering when it was untucked.

For example, if you want a summery casual linen shirt that you can wear untucked, you

want a hem that is cut evenly, however, there are a lot of people out there who want to

wear dress shirts but want to appear more casual and then they wear these untucked shirts

in combination with a jacket and it just looks weird.

Why?

Because the shirt sticks out from underneath the buttoning point which is never advantageous.

Personally, I don't like untucked shirt and even my summery shirts are ones that I can

tuck in but I wear with a belt because it provides a visual contrast that is pleasing

to the eye and my long torso can be shortened by creating a visually longer leg line.

So if you want to wear shirts untucked, I suggest to go with polo shirts and to stick

with tucked in shirts when you go with dress shirts.

If you want to go with untucked shirts, keep it to very casual occasions and never pair

it with a jacket.

The seventh most over a dress shirt is the jewel tone dress shirts.

What I mean by that is very extreme and bold colors that I usually see worn by men who

are very new to clothing who think they need to make a bold statement with the choice of

shirt color so they end up getting a vibrant ruby red shirt, something that is extremely

pink, or turquoise, or blue, it's very vibrant and may be suitable for a techno party but

it's nothing you should ever add to a classically inspired wardrobe.

Why?

Because they're too bold, they're hard to combine with other accessories and they simply

scream cheap and I don't know what I'm doing.

The eighth most overrated thing in dress shirts are short sleeved dress shirts.

If you live in a warmer climate or you suffer from hot summers, you may be prone to wear

a short sleeved shirt underneath your jacket.

The problem is you won't see the sleeves and so it would always look weird and orphaned

because traditionally, a jacket looks better if you show a little bit of shirt cuff that

usually matches the amount of shirt collar you see in the back of your jacket.

On top of that, wearing a short sleeved dress shirt with a necktie makes you look like a

little schoolboy.

In my opinion, there's not a real place for short-sleeved dress shirts in a men's wardrobe

because if you want to go casual, opt for a polo shirt

or maybe a Henley shirt.

Both of them are short-sleeved, you can get them with a proper collar even like a shirt

style collar and they are something that just look good, they're meant to be worn that way.

A dress shirt on the other hand, usually has sleeves, it has the button front, and if it's

too hot, you can just roll up your shirt sleeves and you can roll them back down.

So actually, there's no real need for short sleeve dress shirt unless maybe you're a four-year-old

boy.

Now, let's talk about the most underrated things in men's dress shirts.

Number 9 would be pastel colored shirts.

Most men out there buy white shirts and light blue

shirts.

Now, while white and blue built the foundation of any gentleman's dress shirt closet, pastel

colors can really help to add a note of individuality to your outfits without being over the top.

When I say pastel, I mean tones that are very soft and just have a hint or a hue of color

that is different than white.

For example, you can go with a very pale yellow, a pale green, a pale pink, a pale lavender,

and these tones help to tie together accessories that may have a stronger version of green

than your shirt and overall, they're very easy to combine, they make your outfits your

suits and your accessories look different without being over-the-top.

People won't be able to pinpoint that it was your ivory colored pastel shirt that made

the combination work better but they notice that you look better.

You can also wear it with much more casual combinations such as a sport coat or a tweed

coat where a white dress shirt would be too stark and would provide too much contrast.

Ten, another underrated thing in dress shirts are bold stripes.

Now stripes are very popular in dress shirts for men, particularly some that come in blue

on a white background, or maybe in white in a blue background.

You can find them in slightly different sizes going all the

way from superfine to medium to bolder but it's very hard to find a bolder stripe in

a different color or a bolder stripe that is just much bigger.

Usually, you have to go custom but once you have shirts like that in your wardrobe, it's

really easy to spice up that solid suit that you have and that you just want to look different

than wearing it with a plain white or solid light blue shirt.

For example, the shirt I'm wearing here right now has a very bold stripe in a somewhat softer

green and white and because of that, it works quite well with any kind of green jacket but

I can also wear it with navy blue jacket and it makes the whole ensemble look very different.

The key to wearing a bolder shirt like that is toning down the rest so I'm wearing a summery

jacket here that is a solid mid gray with a mottled tone as well as a kind of tie in

a muted turquoise with muted orange tones that are picked up on a pocket square.

I also like a shirt with maybe yellow stripes and a wider spacing or maybe orange stripes

and while the shirts aren't as versatile as maybe a solid white ivory or light blue shirt,

they still have a place in a gentleman's wardrobe.

So if you have a lot of solid jackets in your wardrobe, I strongly suggest to invest in

a few bolder striped shirts.

If you don't know where to start, I suggest to go with a white and blue stripe that is

bolder that can be more vibrant because that's closest to what most people are comfortable

with but then down the line, I really encourage you to be a little more daring and go with

different colors such as green, orange, or yellow.

Eleven, another underrated thing are Winchester shirts.

What I mean by that is a shirt with a contrasting white collar on a different colored shirt

body that can either be a solid such as gray or it can be a stripe but the mix of that

white collar gives you the resemblance of a classic white dress shirt and when you wear

a jacket, you only have that V that shows a little bit of the stripe.

You can either have the cuffs be matching the collar in white or have the cuffs match

the shirt body; the choice is up to you.

Personally, I prefer having matching cuffs and collar that contrasts the shirt body.

Winchester shirts are particularly suited for businesswear, they're not casual wear

and you can even wear it with a formal morning coat ensemble, you can

wear it to a wedding, or to just a board meeting.

So if you don't have a Winchester shirt in your wardrobe yet, I suggest you invest in

one.

Start out maybe with a solid color such as light blue and later on, you can advance to

stripes, maybe checks, or other things.

During the summer, the most underrated thing are open weave cloth dress shirts.

Most shirts in the market today come in a medium heavy weave that is quite tight, however

during the summer, an open weave shirt is much more pleasant to wear because it allows

to get a lot more air to your skin.

That way, you're less prone to sweating, you stay cooler, and you are just more comfortable.

The problem is most over the rack shirts do not offer those fabrics and even a lot of

custom makers don't offer those fabrics.

So if you go to Italy, in the areas where it's quite warm, all the bespoke shirt makers

will have those fabrics because they know how comfortable they can be and they're just

a godsend.

Personally, I have a range of different open weave dress shirts and sometimes they're so

open that my chest hair pokes through so they are not meant for a super formal board meeting

but that aside, they're extremely comfortable in all kinds of summer situations where you

want to stay as cool as possible.

Pair that with a fresco jacket or other open weave suiting fabrics and you stay a lot cooler

than in a regular suit with a regular dress shirt.

Last but not least, one of the most underrated things in dress shirts are pin collar shirts.

In the 90s, when power suits were popular, a lot of people would wear tab collars and

pin collars.

Now in recent years, they've fallen somewhat out of favor but it's a great way to add a

different accessory to your outfit that elevates your tie knot and makes you look a little

more debonair.

So what is a pin collared shirt?

Pin collared shirts are essential for collar bars because with those, you can just pin

a hole into your shirt collar.

If you have a safety collar pin, you can in theory just punch a hole into any kind of

shirt collar and while that works, I suggest to get a pin collar shirt because you can

use it with a bar you can even use it with a clip and particularly with a safety pin,

it always looks good and the different angle of your tie just looks very very sophisticated

and different from what other people wear but it's not a very loud and ostentatious

way but a very subtle understated and elegant way.

If you're looking for collar bars, collar pins, and collar clips, you can get those

in our shop here and we also have different guides that explain how to wear them what

to do if you want to buy a pin collared shirt I suggest you get a custom shirt even online

custom shirt makers offer them today.

It's just important to place the hole at the right height and ideally, you want it very

close to the edge of the shirt collar, otherwise, you can't wear it with certain items such

as a safety pin and it usually looks best when it's kind of in the middle of the collar

in a vertically, that way you just get the nice look you still have enough space for

your tie knot and overall, you create a harmonious outfit that is quite unique.

in today's outfit I'm wearing a bold dress shirt with white stripes in white and a medium

green.

I keep the rest of the shirt more subtle it's a double cuff paired with a medium spread

collar.

the tie is turquoise and orange which is in general quite loud but it's a wool challis

tie so the tones are much more subdued the pocket square picks up those colors ties it

all together and the jacket in this case must be a solid because otherwise the tie and the

shirt are too loud it's a fresco single breasted jacket that's part of a suit and you've probably

seen me wearing it before.

the pants are also part of a suit which are dark blue is a little lighter than navy which

works well with lighter tones of the jacket and the shirt for the socks I kept it muted

with a navy and blue shadow stripes socks from Fort Belvedere and for my shoes I picked

up a brown tone that works well with the orange tone and my wool challis tie to tie it all

together my cufflinks are lapis lazuli with sterling silver and so is my pinky ring they

pick up the colors of the socks as well as the pants and just add to a harmonious overall

outfit I paired it out with a cornflower boutonniere but honestly the whole combination would probably

even better without it why because the shirt and the tie are already so bold that you simply

don't need a boutonniere in this instance