For many shirt enthusiasts and shirt makers the fitted dress shirt means as much to the design of the dress shirts as the actual materials of the dress shirt. If you take a closer look you will notice time and time again that shirts are either not the right width along the shoulders or are very loose around the waist of many men. Unfortunately even if men are aware of this problem there is a general lack of fitted mens dress shirts in stores. Here are a few options that will help you find the right fitted shirts:
- If you are one of those lucky enough to have an athletic build there are dress shirts designed to complement your build. Shirts for this type of build are usually called athletic, modern, or slim fit dress shirts. These fits come with a more narrow waist, chest, and hip area.
- Get a custom fit shirt. Custom fit shirts is a shirt that is made according to the measurements of your body. At some custom shops you only give your neck and shoulder measurements, however at fully customizable shirt shops all measurements are asked for or taken. By far the most times a fully customizable shirt will fit better than just a custom shirt.
- You’re lucky. You have a body that fits perfectly into a standard sized dress shirt, but lets be realistic its is only a small percentage that are in this category. If you do, just pass any store and get your fitted dress shirt. Be careful though sizes change from store to store.
Winner: The Custom Fit Shirt
Of these three types of fit we recommend getting a fully customizable dress shirt, also known as tailored, bespoke, or made to measure dress shirts. This kind of made to measure fit usually involves around 9 measurements of your upper body, but varies from tailor to tailor. If you are getting a tailor to measure you for your custom fit shirt, he will usually take care of it all and you don’t have to give it a thought. However, if you are measuring yourself for an online tailor, a written guide will tell you exactly how to do it.