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Men's Dress Shirt Styles - How To Choose the Perfect Collar, Placket, Cuff & Fit - YouTube
Channel: Gentleman's Gazette
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Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
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In today's video, we discuss shirt styles
such as the collar, the placket, the fit,
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and anything else that goes into a shirt.
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With the
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recent popularity of made to measure shirts
and custom shirts online and offline, you
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get lots of options.
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Now that can be a blessing or a curse, depending
on what you need and what you don't.
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First of all, a shirt has to fit properly
and oftentimes, you're confronted with different
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terms such as classic fit, standard fit, slim
fit, trim fit, modern fit, so what exactly
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does that mean?
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First of all, the shirts that your father
or grandfather wore was probably a classic
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fit.
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The primary goal of the classic fit is comfort
so you'll have more space in the chest, you'll
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have wider sleeves.
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Overall, it's a roomier cut with excess fabric.
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The idea is that it gives you mobility but
when you tuck in your shirt, you have some
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hang over.
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It's not the most attractive of styles.
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For that reason, it's not very popular with
modern young men who want a more trim silhouette.
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In response to that, the so-called slim fit
was created.
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Basically, everything on the shirt is slimmed
down.
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The torso is slimmed down sometimes with the
use of darts in the back.
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The chest is smaller, the shoulder width is
smaller, and oftentimes, also the sleeves
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are much slimmer.
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The problem encountered with slim fit shirts
is oftentimes just everything is made slimmer
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without giving thought to mobility.
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For example, if your shirts are too slim,
you can't actually move anymore and actually
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constricts your movement.
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That's actually terrible and even in a slim
fit shirt, you should still be able to move
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around freely.
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Therefore, the modern fit or contemporary
fit was introduced which is somewhere between
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the classic fit and the slim fit.
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It usually features a slightly tapered silhouette,
sometimes has darts, sometimes not.
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It is an attractive look but it doesn't compromise
comfort and mobility.
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Personally, this modern contemporary fit is
my favorite because it combines the best of
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both worlds.
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Now sometimes, you may also come across something
called the super skinny fit and that just
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means that everything is tight.
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The problem is that it's so tight that you
easily get wrinkles all over the place and
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it's not just uncomfortable but it also looks
bad and you should avoid it at all costs.
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Once you've determined what fit is right for
you, it's time to choose the details in the
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shirt.
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First of all, let's look at the placket styles.
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The placket is the material on a shirt front
that's underneath the buttons.
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Right here, you can see the so-called traditional
front placket which is an additional piece
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of fabric strip that is sewn onto the top.
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It creates great symmetry, it's therefore
very popular for a classic shirt.
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It's also called American placket and it's
definitely the most conventional style so
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even on less expensive dress shirts, this
is probably what you'll encounter at least
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in the US.
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The other very popular placket style is the
so called French placket as you can see here
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on a checked shirt.
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Unlike the Amercian placket, it's simply a
flat, smooth edge that's folded over and sewn.
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Once buttoned, it creates a clean, nice silhouette
and personally, I like it a lot.
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For summer shirts or pop-over shirts, you'll
often encounter the 3/4 placket which means
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the placket doesn't go all the way down and
it's more like a polo shirt, just very deep.
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You have to pop them over your head to put
them on therefore, they're merely good for
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casual, outside events or the beach.
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Another placket style you usually see in evening
wear is the fly front placket.
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It's called that way because the buttons are
hidden with an additional piece of fabric
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and personally, I don't like it at all.
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When I wear a tuxedo, I use shirt studs because
they're decorative.
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For dress shirts, I wear a traditional placket
or French placket.
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Some people like that hidden fly placket,
if you do, you can wear it otherwise, I suggest
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stay clear and go with classic options like
French or American placket.
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Next up, let's discuss collars because the
collar is probably the most visible part of
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the shirt especially if you wear jackets.
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The purpose of the shirt collar is to flatter
your face.
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In order to do so, it has to be in harmony
with the V-line created by your jacket and
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the upside down V created by your collar.
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Ideally, if you have an oval face, you want
something that's slightly more spread to balance
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it out.
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If you have an oval face and you take a collar
that's very pointed down, you just elongate
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the loook of your face and it's not flattering
anymore.
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On the other hand, if you have a quite round
face or horizontal face and you use a widespread
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collar, the width of your face is even more
accentuated.
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In those cases, you should choose a collar
with points that face more down.
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Probably one of the most popular collars today
is the spread collar.
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It's called that way because it has a certain
spread and it's used for dress shirts and
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casual shirts alike.
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It works with or without a tie and it's quite
versatile unless you have a very wide face.
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In that case, I would stay clear of them.
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The other popular collar style seen today
especially in the US is the so-called button
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down collar.
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It's particularly popular for the oxford cloth
button down collar shirt.
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If you want to learn more about this specific
style, please check out our in-depth guide
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here.
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The hallmark of a good button-down collar
is that so-called collar roll or the S-curve
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which is achieved by having extra material
between the button and the top of your collar
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and it just creates a nice curve roll.
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Apart from the classic button-down collar,
you can now find the so-called under button-down
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collars.
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There's simply a button placed underneath
the collar so it's invisible.
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It has the same function to keep your collar
in place, at the same time, the collar can
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be very soft and it looks like a regular collar
and you have that added comfort.
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The classic collar is called that way because
that's probably what your grandpa wore.
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It's a collar that is not too spread, tips
are not too long but not too short and overall,
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it's a very unexciting collar but it works
well with a four-in-hand tie knot.
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To learn how to tie this knot, please check
out our video here.
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In recent years, smaller collars have become
very popular but most of the time, they're
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not very flattering especially if you wear
a tie or a bow tie, it simply looks like a
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child collar or like a shirt that was handed
down to you from your older brother.
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If you really want to, you can wear a small
collar with denim shirts or casual pants like
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khakis but please do not wear it with a suit
or any form of neckwear.
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For evening wear such as white tie tailcoat
and tuxedo, men would traditionally wear a
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detachable wing collar as you can see here.
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Now, that's a rather stiff collar and it's
hard to find these shirts anymore today because
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it's a separate piece and the idea was that
you were able to wash it separately but today,
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most men find it to be a lot more complicated.
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As a consequence, shirts with this kind of
collar usually come with an attached collar
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or most of the time, men actually prefer a
softer collar with their tuxedo because that's
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what the Duke of Windsor introduced in the
30's.
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He wanted everything to be soft therefore,
with tuxedos today, it' perfectly accurate
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to wear a turndown collar shirt in white that
is a soft collar and you don't have to go
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with those attachable ones.
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Another collar that's not very popular in
the Western hemisphere is the so-called mao
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collar.
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It's simply a short, stand up collar.
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It's very easy to tailor and it's sometimes
worn in combination with the Nehru jacket.
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To learn more about the jacket, you can check
out this guide.
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Overall, I really dislike the look of the
mao collar.
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If you like the style, go for it.
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Another collar that I like a lot is the so-called
club collar.
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It has rounded ends so you're not going to
have a collar tip but they're just rounded.
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If you like to wear collar bars, you want
this club collar with a pinhole so you can
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actually wear it comfortably and it elevates
your tie knot.
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It creates a really debonair look.
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To learn more about collar pins and clips,
and bars, please check out this video here.
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Another collar I'm quite fond of is the medium
spread collar , which I'm wearing here right
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now.
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It's basically not classic but not too spread.
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It's kind of in between.
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I chose to go with rather long points simply
for a different look.
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Not all medium spread collar have points that
are long but the advantage of going with a
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made to measure shirt is that you can really
choose and design your very own collars according
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to your very own wishes and design ideas.
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A collar that was quite popular in the 90's,
you saw it in movies like Wall Street, was
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the so-called tab collar.
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The little tabs on the collar elevate your
tie in a similar fashion to a collar clip.
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A very popular style lately has been the so-called
extreme cutaway collar.
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Personally, I'm not a huge fan of it because
it's just cut away so far, you cannot really
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wear a neckwear that looks flattering.
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Because of the widespread, your tie knot has
to be extremely big or you see the band of
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the tie and it just looks odd.
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Maybe you can get away by tying a double Windsor
and you can learn in this video how to do
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that.
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Next up let's discuss shirt cuff styles.
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The most traditional dress shirt cuffs are
French cuffs or double cuffs.
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They're folded over and fastened with cufflinks.
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Today, most dress shirts come with so-called
barrel cuffs or button cuffs and they feature
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one, two, or three buttons.
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One or two is more traditional, three is a
little more contemporary.
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A combination of those two styles is the so-called
James Bond cuff because it is actually buttone
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but folded over.
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It's also known as the cocktail cuff.
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Apart from that, you can have straight cut
cuffs, or slightly angled ones, or rounded
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ones, but apart from these three basic styles,
there's not a whole lot of variety in that
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department.
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Personally, I think with a suit, a French
cuff shirt with cuff links is better.
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For a casual shirt, you can go with button
cuffs.
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Most traditional shirts have a hem that is
longer in the front and at the back and cut
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up in the middle so you don't have excess
bunching of fabric.
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You want your shirt to be much longer especially
in the back because you don't want it to come
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untucked.
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If you want to wear your shirts casually and
not tuck them in, go with a straight lined
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hem because the long ends look unflattering
if you don't tuck them in.
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Okay, now let's take a look at the back of
the shirts.
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Traditionally, you can find a so-called split
yoke in the back which originally was there
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to compensate for sloping shoulders.
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Today, it's simply a detail that helps in
matching the patterns and the sleeves more
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easily.
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It doesn't really add value unless it's a
true custom shirt where they adapt it to your
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shoulders.
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In terms of pleats, traditional shirts oftentimes
feature a center pleat down the middle.
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It's like a box pleat that gives you more
room.
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Alternatively, you can have these side pleats
which give you a little more room when you
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move your arms or sometimes there are no pleats
at all.
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Personally, I like the idea of greater mobility
that's why I usually choose some side pleats
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or no pleats at all.
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I'm not a big fan of the box pleat because
there's just too much fabric.
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If you choose to go with a contrasting collar
or contrasting cuffs, I suggest you stick
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to white, it's very classic and it usually
gives the shirt a more formal look.
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If you want to learn more about shirt styles
and shirts in general, check out our in-depth
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guide on the website here.
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To get videos like this right to your inbox,
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