First 10 Mens Dress Shirts You Should Buy

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While dress shirts form the foundation of a classic man’s wardrobe, they're often overlooked in favor of suits, shoes, or accessories, however, if you get your first dress shirts wrong, it's much harder to combine them with other things and you may not get the wear out of them you desire.

So with these 10 dress shirts, you'll basically be equipped for all classic men's style outfits yet you really cover just the basics so you don't spend more money than you ultimately have to. Basically, there are always three main considerations; one is the color shirt, then the type of fabric, as well as the shirt details.

1. Plain white solid dress shirt in a plain weave. I suggest to go with a medium spread collar as well as barrel cuffs because it allows you to wear it in more formal and less formal settings but it's something you can pair with jeans or denim, as well as with a very formal business suit.

2. Fancy weave white dress shirt with double cuffs or French cuffs. I'm wearing one like that right now. It has a subtle waffle pattern weave which makes it slightly different than a plain weave in the sense that if you look at it very closely and the light shines in a certain direction, you can see it has a pattern, however, from a few feet away or a few meters away, you think it's a solid shirt with a nice depth of color.

3. Light blue dress shirt. It should be made of a medium fabric, ideally, plain weave. Again, barrel cuffs, no pocket and French placket.

4. Light blue shirt but now, make sure that the color shade is slightly different than the one you had previously. You can go darker, you can go lighter, just make sure it's different. Also, for the fabric itself, I suggest you get maybe something in a twill weave because it's a new small weave pattern that you don't already have and it's a very classic thing, it is hard wearing and it's particularly good in a slightly heavier fabric maybe for winter because you want to have a variety of shirts in your wardrobe.

5. Ivory color
It should be distinctly different from white if you hold them next to each other, however, it's so close to white on its own that most people would never realize you're not wearing a plain white dress shirt, however, plain white works really best with dark colors.

6. Striped shirt with a white background in a blue stripe. The size of the blue stripe is up to you. I'd stay away from extremely fine ones or extreme bold ones, go with something in the middle down the line because that will work well with all kinds of solid suits.

7. Striped shirt but this time, I'd suggest you go with a light blue background and a white stripe. Ideally, the stripe should be different from what you already had so I'd suggest go more with a finer stripe rather than with a bolder stripe because you want it to be super versatile.

8. Checked shirt and can either be a light blue check on a white background or you can maybe go with a red and blue check on a white background.

9. Oxford cloth button-down shirt
It's an American staple, it's a very hard-wearing cloth. I'll get it in a light blue color because the Oxford fabric has strands of different colors in white and blue so it gives a nice color effect.

10. Soft washed denim dress shirt
10-15 years ago, it wasn't really something that men would actually wear. In recent years, it has become so popular that men stock loads of them. In general, a soft washed denim dress shirt really tones down any kind of formal garment you have.
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Gentleman's Gazette

[MiniPaintAdventurer]

That last shirt gave me a great idea for a future video. 10 common fashion trends that might make the jump to classic style in 50 years.

[ann_teator]

If you wear white shirt long enough, it becomes ivory shirt

[dmshampton]

As a soon to be college grad, these videos are extremely helpful. They really help me focus my purchases and get the most versatile use for my money. Thanks Sven!!

[coreviimeinen]

Thank You so much for this Video Raphael!! Personally, I feel like this is the most useful "Men's Classic Wardrobe" video I have seen to date, and I've watched quite a few. For some reason, I have found Dress Shirts the most challenging item to understand in a Men's Classic Wardrobe, thus far.

While I have seen several resources on where to emphasize quality and $$, I have taken note of those videos, and generally taken the inside-out approach to building a classic wardrobe: beginning with items I get dressed into first (eg: body layer items), and addressing things like accessories and jackets/outerwear last. This made the most sense to me for my line of work (Engineering), where the exact nature of the work can vary from more hands-on, to more office oriented. Thus, suits are necessary for important meetings, but not on a daily basis. Impressions are important in my community, but function is King in that world.

While my challenges with both understanding, and seeing color (I have some colorblindness) probably played a significant roll in my effort to understand Dress Shirt characteristics, the overall color challenge feels extra challenging for the 2% of the population that has red hair (Low Contrast that will likely change to Medium Contrast as I age and my Hair turns from Red to White). Furthermore, I can not afford/justify custom shirts at this juncture.

The "White Dress Shirt" expectation in particular, feels like a catch 22!! If I do not wear one, I'm "breaking the formality rules", but if I wear one, it lends itself to a High Contrast look, as the most formal suits are dark (eg Charcoal Grey and Navy). Would it be appropriate to wear an "off-white" (Ivory, Cream, Ecru, etc?) Dress Shirt in a Formal Business situation (eg an Interview) with a Charcoal or Navy suit? If not, what would you suggest, and why?

Lastly, it seems like there are so many more physical details that require attention in Dress Shirts. The Dress Shirt feels like the "busiest" piece of clothing in the entire outfit, regardless of formality level. The Dress Shirt appears to interface with nearly every other piece of clothing, in addition to the face. It requires in-depth knowledge in the areas of: History/Culture, Etiquette/Formality, Fit, Function, Fabric Properties & Construction Methods, Colors & Patterns, and how each of the former attributes apply to every other item in the outfit. In short, it felt like I needed to learn nearly everything else about a classic wardrobe before I could understand the Dress Shirt's role.

That said, this video created an excellent framework to guide my first Dress Shirt purchases (very practical). More importantly, it illustrated the critical elements that required my attention, and guided me to other in-depth resources. Hopefully, this detailed comment expresses the context of my struggles, what I learned, and my gratitude.

Kind Regards,
~Eran Shileikis

[erizzle]

Been working from home for 10 years and headed back to an office soon. Been a long time since I've even owned any dress clothes. It's actually been lots of fun finding stuff. So far have three dress shirts. White with an interesting subtle small square "dots" pattern, light blue with a nice texture and a fun white one with subtle asymmetric tiny blue dots. Three suits also - navy with (again subtle) check, classic grey and a modern looking but yet three piece solid black suit. 25 years ago got hold of several nice ties a fashion loving boss was getting rid of and they still look good. Your videos have been helping me navigate how to not look like I don't know what I'm doing!

[JeffreyPhamigo]

1:05 the funny way to say basically 😁😁 another very useful episode! Thank You Sven!

[Brown-from-the-west]

Thank you for all your videos. Thanks to you I love dressing up for Sunday Service

[jonstern]

Class as usual! I liked the focus on fabric and weave as well as colour and style. Though I buy off the rack I'm always looking out for unusual shirts - unusual designs, patterns and colours

[joygt]

For the coming fall and winter you should do a guide on leather jackets. Classic styles, different leathers (cow hide, lambskin, goatskin), some history of the leather jacket and their usage in everyday life, as well as where and how to wear them. Love all of your videos.

[cristiansg]

Hey Raphael I love your videos, they are very useful to me and as a 19 yo, I hope to look as stylish and elegant like you in the future. Keep it up man!

[StraxyExtreme]

Please do a pants version of this. This is great and helpfull video.

[matthewmarroquin]

Just bought formal white and an ivory shirt yesterday both french cuffed. Pretty happy with my purchase.

[rickhodge]

Pursuing my bachelors currently in a field that requires showing up to a lot of events and first impressions are essential. I’m come from a very middle class back ground this site has been amazingly helpful

[psilocybemusashi]

best item on the list: Ivory Shirt (good luck finding them). worst item on the list: denim shirt (very much over rated.

[michaelmechler]

Mr. Schneider, would you consider a mens fashion of the world series about how styles differ from different countries like Germany or Russia or UK? I've searched online but I can't find much of anything if there is anything. Thank you for these videos!

[EquipmentReviewer]

Such a good channel. One of my "go to's".

[BBoYSHaDoE]

Once again, great video! Please do the first 5 color trousers or chinos we should buy. Gentleman's Gazette is the best classic style video on YouTube!

[stylishoversixty]

Again a truly helpful and informative video some excellent suggestions on building a solid shirt foundation just one question and perhaps it's an oversight on my part however I don't think there was any mention of contrasting collars or club collars as part of that building shirt foundation thanks for the video!

[ardentdfender]

This information is everlasting in classic Mens dressing for shirts. As someone who also has a lot of dress shirts, something I learned from experience for a well fitted shirt is to also get your shirt size correct, that’s very important. Get your Neck size measured correctly and with 1-2 fingers to make sure it won’t be too tight to choke you if you button the tip shirt button to wear a tie. Make sure you get your Arm Length correct Arm to Wrist length. Those two measurements will change a lot in how your shirt fits and or weather sleeve bunch up on your arm if too long. A changing Neck size will affect a lot about the body area width and chest size of the shirt. So try to get those correct so you don’t waste money on a shirt that don’t fit as well. Tailored Fit shirts are also slimmer. Skim Fitted shirts can have a much better fit in your size to fit better if you have a fitted body type and not much bulge in the stomach. Once you buy a first shirt and see how it fits, then the rest will be either up or down from that size for you. Just try and learn from every shirt buy. You will gather a lot of data on how shirts fit you over time based on the size, neck and arm length.

[aidarh]

You won't believe how many times I watched this video . So thank you so much . It's so helpful
would you be nice and make a video about first 10 pants ?