Shirts and Ties
You can really flex your color and print muscles when combining
dress shirts
Here are some starter tips for those of you on fashion training wheels.
| No-Fail Shirt and Tie Combinations | |
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Basic Rules to Live By
- Balance is the key.
- When it comes to ties: The brighter the color, the more conservative the pattern, and vice versa.
- When it comes to pairing a shirt and tie: The brighter the tie, the plainer the shirt, and vice versa.
- You can mix prints on ties and shirts, as long as they're not the same size . (In other words, small dots with large stripes are okay, but large stripes with large dots are a bad match.)
- Leave the printed tie/printed shirt/printed suit triple threats to the experts.
-
100%
silk ties
are the best quality and knot the best.
-
100%
cotton shirts
are the only dress shirts worth your time.
- Never wear a button-down collar with a double breasted suit.
- Collars should flatter your face.
-
Narrow
faces get straight collars
.
-
Round faces get
straight point collars
.
- It's sad, but true...the monochrome tie look ended when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire went off the air.
- And novelty ties (singing Santa, large mouth bass, etc.) should be reserved for people who don't want to be taken seriously.
- As the classic film, Legally Blonde reminded us that, "No one looks good in paisley." (Don't lie. You've seen it.)
| Now You Put Them Together! | ||||
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Straight Collar Shirt in Solid Print
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Button-Down Collar in Checked Print
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Wide Collar Shirt with Pinstripes
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Long Sleeve Sport Shirt
|
Short Sleeve Sport Shirt
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| And Cuffs? | |
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How Do They Fit?
The more expensive a shirt, the better it will fit you. But if you look, you can get a well-fitted shirt for a reasonable price.
- That being said, shirts are measured by your sleeve length and your neck length. SYMS has a great guide for fitting.
- If it constricts your breathing, the buttons seem stressed, or the sleeves don't cover your wrists, it's too small.
- If you're swimming in it or the shoulders extend past your own, it's too big.
- Your tie must be tied to hit your belt line. No more, no less.
- Your shirt collar should come a bit above your suit collar and your shirt cuff a bit beyond your jacket cuff.
Shirt and Tie Care
- It's best to launder your shirts and hand press them. It will not only save on your dry cleaning bill, but it will preserve the life of your shirt.
- Better Lifestyle offers simple instructions on how to iron a dress shirt.
- According to Silkforme , this is the way ties should be handled:
- Never remove your tie by pulling the know until it comes free--untie it properly.
-
Store ties hanging, preferably on a
tie rack
.
- Try to keep stains off your shirt--use a dry cleaner if you stain your tie (and don't let the stain sit there for months!)
- Care2 allows other messy eaters to share their top 20 tips for getting stains out of ties.
External Links
- Ask Andy About Clothes -- Refined advice on color, print, fabric and texture.
- Ask Men -- Good, easy advice for shirts and ties, with examples of each.
- Best of British Shirts -- A sophisticated guide for mixing patterns in suits, ties and shirts.
- GQ -- The Style Guy gives great answers, always. Here is his shirts section.
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