Dress Shirt Fit

The dress shirt is one of the most important items in men's fashion. However, ensuring proper dress shirt fit is a difficult task for many men. That's why you often see men walking around with shirts billowing around their torso, looking generally sloppy -- they don't understand proper dress shirt fit.

If you follow these guidelines to choosing a dress shirt that fits, both around the torso and the collar, you'll stand out from the unkempt masses.

When the top button is closed, you should be able to slide two fingers between the neck and the collar of a new dress shirt. There is so much space because shirt makers add an extra half-inch to allow for shrinkage during washing. If this extra space isn't there, you're going to find the dress shirt very tight around the neck after one or two washings.

Additionally, when wearing a tie, the collar points should remain in contact with the shirt. There should not be collar space above the tie's knot and the collar points should remain under the jacket no matter which way you turn your head.

The dress shirt fit should be snug around the torso so that when tucked in, there is no extra fabric billowing outside your pants. If this is the case, your shirt is too big and you'll have to add darts to the back so that it offers a tighter fit. That being said, you don't want to have the fabric straining too much against your torso.

The cuff of your dress shirt, whether barrel or French, should fit tightly around the wrist. When you move your arm, your cuff should move with your hand without sliding up or down your arm. A good rule: if you can fit your hand through the cuff without unfastening it, its circumfrence is too large.

The sleeve of your dress shirt should end just past your wrist bone, roughly at the break between your wrist and your thumb. The dres shirt itself should be long enough that it remains tucked into your pants when you raise your arms.