Buy Dress Shirts

How it feels: The smooth nylon has just a bit of stretch, so the shirt feels light and sleek against the skin, not cheap or staticky (like some synthetic blends). The sensation is completely different than what you get with most cotton shirts (which usually feel crisp and can drag against the skin).

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The Club Monaco comes in XS to XXL, or 35 inches to 47 inches across the chest and 32 inches to 38 inches in the sleeve. (Though we saw an XXS during testing, stock fluctuates.) Some linen shirts we saw needed to be hand-washed, but this one is machine-washable and can tolerate the dryer, which helps cut down on wrinkles. In our tests, it shrank only half an inch in both body and sleeve length.

All of the shirts that we recommend in this guide can be machine-washed on cold with a stain-fighting detergent like Tide Ultra Stain Release. To get the most longevity out of your shirts, skip the dryer and air-dry instead. Smooth wrinkles as soon as the garment emerges from the wash, then hang to dry on a clothesline or sturdy wooden hanger.

I started by researching hundreds of button-up shirts. And, based on specs and user reviews, I narrowed the field to 29 highly rated models: 12 dress shirts, nine Oxfords, and eight linen shirts. For this piece, we focused on button-up shirts marketed to men, though these styles can be worn by people of any gender. Kimber Streams, a senior staff writer who is non-binary, enhanced the scope and feel of this guide with their participation. Unlike shirts marketed to women, the shirts in this guide have straight seams, with minimal tapering at the hip and similar measurements at the chest and waist.

Sizing: Many button-up shirts cap out at XXL, so it was difficult to ding any particular brand for that sort of limited range. Still, we looked for shirts that offered an even wider variety of sizes. To check for shrinkage, I measured the sleeve and body length of each shirt, and then washed and dried it according to its care label. Then I measured again to calculate the difference.

Quality: I was looking for high-quality, well-constructed button-ups that would last for years. During my initial testing, I looked for shirts with even stitching at the seams, few to no loose threads, and well-built collars. In the dress shirt category, I looked for shirts with sturdy collar stays.

Though many people tend to use the terms button-up and button-down interchangeably, a button-down shirt refers to shirts with collars that button down at the corners, typically Oxford shirts. As such, dress shirts are not technically button-downs, though both dress shirts and Oxfords are button-ups (meaning they fasten at the center with buttons).

In this guide, we also recommend a linen shirt that has a distinctly airy look and feel, compared with shirts in the other two categories covered here. But it is also, in fact, a button-down because its collar is secured by buttons.

I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of RMRS. I'm a former Marine Corps Officer with a BA in Evolutionary Biology and Philosophy (Cornell College 98') and an MBA from The University Of Texas at Austin (07'). I studied the Science of Style in London, Hong Kong, and Bangkok and have created over 5000 videos/ articles to help men dress better. Click here to discover more about our mission here at RMRS.

Choose from top brands like Calvin Klein and Van Heusen for your dress shirt and polo shirt needs. For a casual polo style, try a Modern Fit polo with Slim Fit jeans. Pair a Classic Fit dress shirt with a suit jacket for a timeless and comfortable look. For a sharp, smart look, try a plaid dress shirt with dark green chinos and brown derby shoes.

The surefire way to get dress shirts online that fit you flawlessly, of course, is to get custom dress shirts. Made to your exact measurements, the fit of a custom dress shirt will blow an off the rack shirt out of the water.

As we suggested above, tailoring your shirts is a great way to get a good fit. But alterations can add up. When you factor in the cost of tailoring a shirt (plus the time and energy spent getting your shirts to the tailor and getting them to fit you just right) a dress shirt that looked like a deal on the website when you first purchased it can actually prove quite pricey.

On better shirts the yoke (the part of the shirt where you would rest the bar if, for some reason, you were to do squats in a dress shirt) is made of two pieces of fabric. This is not just a style choice, it allows the shirt to stretch better across the width of the upper back and shoulders for ease of movement while reinforcing the structure, and making a long lasting shirt.

New York-based menswear startup Proper Cloth makes outstanding online custom dress shirts. Provided you are willing to take the time to get your fit right, you will wind up with durable, stylish and well-fitting dress shirts.

Founded by serial British entrepreneur Nicholas Wheeler in 1986, Charles Tyrwhitt is famous for its 4 shirts for $199 deal, which works out to just under $50 per dress shirt. Their shirts have held up exceptionally well for me over the years. (I prefer their extra slim fit, as even the regular slim fit can be blousey.)

The Seattle-based retailer has a large selection of affordable dress shirts for men from their own Nordstrom label as well as from brands like Bonobos, Brooklyn Brigade, English Laundry, Eton, Norse Projects, Rhone, Suitsupply, Ted Baker, Theory, and W.R.K.

Tie Bar makes more than just ties. Founded in 2004, the Chicago-based brand carries affordable but stylish clothing and accessories for men, including a nice selection of dress shirts. (In fact, Tie Bar is a surprisingly-terrific destination for a range of very affordable business casual outfits for men.)

I like that Tie Bar carries a range of basic building blocks, including a nice variety of white shirts (think pinpoint, oxford, herringbone, and textured non-iron), as well as a large selection of colorful patterned and striped button downs.

Brooks Brothers offers a versatile selection of dress shirts for men in 6 different fits including extra-slim, fitted, classic, relaxed and big-and-tall. They also offer a variety of fabrics that dictate price points, from BrooksCool to the Brooks Brothers Luxury Collection to the Golden Fleece collection. Prices range from $69.50 for a Milano slim fit dress shirt to $225 per shirt for the Golden Fleece collection.

Batch specializes in utility shirts. Traditionally, utility shirts are more casual, with a two front pocket design. Batch has a dressed-up line-up of work utility shirts featuring premium materials that could be appropriate for a business casual environment.

Their shirts feature an innovative fit system: Choose from 12 unique options that combine size (tall, average or short) with fit (skinny, slim, athletic or broad) that get you close to a custom fit. (My fit is short and slim, and it really does fit better than off-the-rack shirts.) Their fit system makes it one of the best dress shirts for an athletic build. Professional shirts from $85.

There are countless other online custom tailors who can make made-to-measure dress shirts. Choose from brands including Alton Lane, Apposta, Blank Label, Deo Veritas (see my interview with founder Vinnie Sikka), Hockerty, Indochino, Knot Standard and Lanieri, an Italian startup that delivers custom suits (and shirts) using premium fabrics.

Based in Newark, NJ, the High Bar Shirt Company was a family-owned company that had been making shirts since 1933. The company was known for providing made-to-measure shirts for former MLB and NFL stars and broadcasters including Howie Long and David Ortiz. Sadly, the High Bar Shirt Company closed, another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic that has rocked retail and fashion.

Mizzen and Main is well-known for its performance fabric clothing. It makes a wide range of performance dress shirts for men that feature a quick dry tech fabric made of an 85% Polyester 85% and 15% Spandex 15% blend. Shirts from $125.

Steven Fisher and Lee Moffie founded State and Liberty after meeting at the University of Michigan. They specialize in athletic-fit dress shirts and other professional performance wear made from technical fabrics. Their $90 Springer Solid White Performance Dress Shirt looks crisp and clean.

You need not worry, however, because this guide will provide you with all of the information that you need to not only select a dress shirt that looks and feels great but to also build a collection of dress shirts that will be the perfect focal points for countless stylish outfits.

At its most fundamental level, a dress shirt, also known as a day buttoned shirt, is a garment that features a collar and full-length opening fastened with buttons or studs. Traditionally, this shirt was effectively an undergarment, always being worn beneath a waistcoat and jacket. Nowadays, dress shirts can be worn without additional garments, although within the Classic Style, it is still conventional to see dress shirts usually paired with jackets.

Because dress shirts are available in a wide variety of styles, colors, and cuts, they can vary greatly as regards the situations or occasions for which they are appropriate. A pink and white striped dress shirt might be the perfect complement to a summer suit while on vacation in Italy, but it would not be appropriate in a professional office setting, like a law firm.

Dress shirts can range in formality from the very casual to the extremely formal. In general, how casual or formal a dress shirt is depends upon the cumulative total of the relative formality of its parts.

Said another way, the inclusion of certain features that are either very formal or very casual can skew the overall formality of the entire shirt. All of the major features of a dress shirt will be discussed in the following guide, with information about the relative formality of these features. With this information, you will be able to determine, by looking at the shirt as a whole, how casual or formal it is. 041b061a72