We all have that one favorite dress shirt. The one that works both as well at work as out with friends, and makes you feel dressed and relaxed at the same time. That’s until the dreadful day comes when it’s worn out, or lost its color in the washing machine. So here you are, on the hunt for a new one to replace the empty space your favorite dress shirt left behind.
To get a new favorite dress shirt it would seem like enough to just get another one like it; same brand, same size, same preferences. But dress shirts change. The models vary, brands want to renew themselves and their product, so you may well find your favorite style to be completely gone or not as good as you remembered it to be.
From off-the-rack to a tailor
The difficulty of getting a perfectly fitting dress shirt from off-the-rack sizes is that each manufacturer makes their dress shirts differently. The same size doesn’t necessarily equal the same fit. Let’s say you buy your dress shirts from the Large rack, then the dress shirt will assume you have a certain inch neck and that your shoulders are another. But in reality, your neck size is half an inch wider and your shoulders are half an inch smaller. It just doesn’t fit, when in theory it should fit perfectly.
A lot of times you have different dress shirts that fit good, but only an arm’s length, and not over the chest, or perfect around your waist but not around your neck.