Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dressshirt

Possible to Repair Dress Shirt Sleeve?

Bulgaroktonos — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:39:20 -0800

I got a tear in my dress shirt sleeve today, and I'm wonder if it's something that a tailor could repair. Obviously, the answer to this question is "find a tailor and ask them," but I'd rather not bother with the hassle of going to the tailor if it's impossible. The tear looks like this, as you can see it's pretty long and runs directly down one of the creases in the shirt sleeve. The shirt is oldish so if it's a total loss that's fine, but I'd rather not go getting rid of a shirt if there's a chance of preserving it.

Does this look like something a tailor could do something with? If so how obvious would the repair be?

Dress Shirts for a Big Dude

dhens — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:44:40 -0800

Where can I buy dress shirts for a portly man (myself) online? I am looking to buy some dress shirts to go with a tailor-made suit that fits my rotund frame. I do not, however, want to shell out $145 (price my tailor quoted me) for a tailor-made shirt as well. I'm 5'8", with a 19" neck and 35" sleeve size. I wear a 52" waist but I am significantly rounder (58") at the, uh, widest part of my belly. I bought some shirts from my usual place for big men's clothing.

I typically buy 3XL shirts for my more casual wear (button collar); I got this in 3XL and it fits like a charm, albeit a big long in the sleeves.

However, I got this for a dress shirt with a 19" neck and 34/35" sleeves, and doesn't fit me very well at all. When I button it and sit down, the shirt stretches like crazy and "comes apart" all down the middle (imagine this but on a dude's belly).

Can anyone point me to a place where I can decent dress shirts (upper limit say $70 each) in white and blue on the internets? I could get it altered afterward, obviously. Thanks.

Buying a shirt for skinnyfat dude w/long arms in NYC

lalochezia — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:28:55 -0800

Shirt-filter: Buying, via Mail-order or in NYC, a casual dress shirt for a guy who is skinnyfat, with long arms. Shirt Me AskMe! I would like to buy some affordable casual, buttoned, longsleeve, collared shirts, say less than $50 per shirt, that will last washing and tumble drying for a good few years.

I'm a guy, have a 42-44" chest, 16.5" collar, and wide shoulders, slender torso, skinny arms. I have a little bit of a gut, classic "skinnyfat" body-shape. The killer is that I have LONG arms ( more than 36" sleeve length). I like my shirts to have arms long enough that when I reach out and shake hands with someone, the shirt sleeves don't hike up my arm; in fact the cuffs shouldn't move at all.

In the US, If I buy shirts that have arms long enough, either the body of the shirt or arms are too baggy (big L or XL shirts). If I buy slimmer or smaller shirts, the arms are short or show my unfortunate belly.

Benneton shirts - euro cut, in L or XL are good, but the only other shirts I've found are either custom or very high end.

Does anyone know of mail order/internet or in person in NYC retailers that stock items like this?

Suit and tie

lewedswiver — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:11:21 -0800

What color suits, shirts, and ties compose a basic professional wardrobe? (On Tuesday I'm starting a new job in which I will wear a suit and tie every day. I need to buy some clothes -- help me out.) I own one suit that I recently got tailored. It's a dark-gray pinstripe suit, and it now fits better (not perfectly but well enough). In terms of nice dress shirts that I think I can wear, I really only have two, a white and a light blue. My other shirts just aren't that nice. What do I need to buy?

I will be wearing a suit five days a week (well, possibly not Fridays). Obviously I don't need 5+ suits -- I gather that what one does (in order to change one's outfit) is merely rotate through various shirts and ties every day. Seems boring, but eh. However, I presumably really do need more than one suit. What color should I buy? Dark blue? lighter gray? Which color shirts go with which color suit?

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1) Speaking as a not-very-sartorial 24-year-old who hated dressing up when a kid but is now down with wearing adult-people-clothes, what is the very basic professional wardrobe?

If anyone has advice along the lines of, "You should have suits of this color and this color, X shirts of this color, this color, and this color, X ties of this color, this color, and this color," that might be most helpful!

2) In the past I believe I've seen recommendations on Mefi for a particular kind of wrinkle-free no-iron dress shirt (possibly Brooks Brothers?) that fits well, but I can't find the exact recommendation in my search through the many similar AskMefi questions. Any ideas?

3) I often hear it said that the right shoes can very much make the suit. Any ideas of where to get them? (I'm in Los Angeles.)

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(Keep in mind, when recommending clothes, that I have ~$1000 in the bank account and will be making <$600/week pre-taxes. However, building a wardrobe is an important investment for me right now, so spending a huge chunk my current change is fine.)

Do they make tuck-in shirts only?

windbox — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:02:54 -0800

Do they design dress shirts specifically for tucking in only? I just got a dress shirt that fits perfectly and I planned on wearing with jeans untucked - except I didn't realize when I bought it that there's three buttons right next to each other at the very bottom as well as a sewn on label that explains washing instructions ("Machine wash warm blah blah blah...")

Is there a way to remove these things without ruining the shirt? Does the label easily tear off? Or does this mean the shirt was designed to be only tucked in (in which case I'd return it)?

Where can I find sweet but affordable dress shirts for a smaller sized guy?

Giggilituffin — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:14:11 -0800

I don't have my measurements on hand at the moment, but I'm 5'9" and 145 pounds. I'm looking for the more casual and trendy dress shirt versus trad. Most are cut too big and blousy, or just not my size, or not my taste (plaid/paisley = ick). I went to my local mens' store and found Stone Rose shirts and was impressed by the detail and quality, but alas, no smalls. I could order online, but $100 to $150 per shirt is out of my league for now, plus the extra costs as these are supposed to be dry cleaned only. Trolling the racks of TJ Maxx and Goodwill isn't bringing much luck, much less Sears, Macy's and JC Penney in my immediate area. Where can I find some alternatives? Please no Ed Hardy.

Hello and welcome to QI, these are my whimsical cufflinks!

cowbellemoo — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:22:53 -0800

I'm a big guy and I'd like to get a dress shirt with French cuffs. Are there great online sellers for shirts like this, or perhaps you know of a better brick and mortar shop around Maryland/Washington, D.C. that can help me out? The local big guy store's French cuff selection is limited to Italian Mobster chic (striped lavender), while I'm going for more of a Stephen Fry look – a cream or white shirt to go with my dark gray corduroy jacket. I'd like it to be long, too, so it stays tucked into my pants without fuss.

No pressing deadline or budget, so maybe that opens up custom-made shirts from a tailor? Fit and comfort are much more important than style or formality, for this shirt.

Measurements, in case that's helpful:
20 neck, 36 sleeve, 60 chest

Tired of shirkin' when shirtin'

Shepherd — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:22:02 -0800

What do I need to know before buying a white dress shirt? I'm at a point in my professional life where the whisper-thin $14.99 white dress shirts just aren't cutting it. Before I take the half-assed step to the merely rumour-thin $30 white dress shirts, I wonder if somebody natty among the MeFi set could give me some pointers. Where are the price points for quality in white dress shirts? What should I look for when shirting up?

For bonus points: I live in a smallish Quebec town where the closest stores are all Canadian chains like The Bay, Sears, etc. Sites like this one seem to offer ... er ... shirts of quality I cannot ascertain at prices that may or may not be reasonable, which would be convenient. Essentially, I have no idea what I'm doing here, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

Long sleeve shirts for a small guy

sjl7678 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:44:30 -0800

Where can I find long sleeve, casual, button-down dress shirts for a small guy? Lot's more information inside. I've been looking for some new clothing recently and it's not going very well. I like how I look in long sleeve dressy-ish shirts. The problem is that I'm a fairly small guy. I'm around 5'6" and weigh between 120 and 130 pounds.

All of the size 'small' dress shirts I try on in stores are definitely too big; the sleeves go to my knuckles and the rest of the shirt falls partway down my thighs. I've resorted to using dress shirts from the boys' section for work. The ones I wear are about a size 18 in boys'. The sleeves are slightly too short but I deal with it. Unfortunately they usually only come in black, white, or some ridiculous striped pattern that's not really my thing. Help!

I'd like to find shirts that fit me, aren't just black or white, and would look good untucked with jeans. I'm not looking for really flashy or gaudy patterns; I like muted colors and more subtle patterns. I know I'll probably have to shop online to find what I need and that's fine with me.

A bit more background: I'm a fairly experienced swing and blues dancer and have started tango recently. That means that I usually roll up my sleeves to around the elbows pretty often. That also means they get sweaty and need to be able to be washed in a regular washer (I can't afford constant dry cleaning). As an aside, if anyone has tips for rolling up sleeves so they 1. stay rolled up and 2. don't look absurd, they'd be appreciated too!

I know you might be thinking "Why bother with long sleeves rolled up? Just get short sleeves!" I have tattoos that sometimes need to be covered (for work) so short sleeve shirts are not really an option.

One thing I've considered is tailoring. There are a bunch of tailoring places in my neighborhood; if I bought shirts that were too big for me and brought them there could they tailor them to fit me, or do most tailoring places only deal with suits and the like? If so, how big should I buy so that they have enough to work with? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to that kind of thing.

As for price range, now that I have a full time job I'm more flexible than I was in college, but keeping it under $40 would be wonderful. Less is even better.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me! If there's anything I left out just ask and I'll reply as soon as I can.

They're ideal for pickin' teeth, too.

Terminal Verbosity — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:42:43 -0800

Haberdasheryfilter: Where can I get the little plastic tabs that go into the collar of a man's dress shirt? They are about two inches long, flat, pointed at one end and rounded at the other. An inexpert drawing of one would look like this:

Also, does anyone know what these damn things are called? A google search on variations of "tab collar dress shirt" brought up a variety of nazi memorabilia, oddly, and I don't feel like getting fired today.

I'm assuming the things cost half a cent to produce and anyone with a supply of them will happily give me a handful for free. But who is this someone and what do I ask for so I don't look like the fool that I am?

Coz Every Crazy About A Sharp Dressed Man ...

Dallasfilm — Fri, 13 May 2005 04:25:43 -0800

I'm thinking of getting some dress shirts custom made. Has anyone had this done? Was it worth it? How much should I expect to spend?

For any Metafites living in Dallas, TX - is there any place you recommend?