If you look at a man and feel that he is handsome, a major part in his personality is played by his dressing style. And in the dress, shirt plays still major part. The looks of a good dress shirt depend mainly on its details which show good finishing and workmanship.
Collars
As shirt is the most important component of a man’s dress, collar is the most important component of the shirt. It is the collar because of which attention is drawn towards a man’s face and if the collar is attractive it creates illusion of an appropriate shape of the face.
Collar should be chosen according to one’s face. If the man’s face is small, wide collars should be avoided as they will overpower the face. And big-faced men should avoid narrow collars because they will make the face look still bigger. Thus choosing collars according to the face shape is more important than to follow fashion trends.
Stitching of collar is also most important in deciding the quality. Collar is stitched by folding the fabric and stitching it around the edges to hold the folded fabric in place. This stitch should not be wider than ¼ inch from the border of the collar.
Stitching
An important sign of good stitching of a man’s dress shirt is the stitching of its side seam which should be twice along the seams with only one needle. This seems to be a single row of stitches from outside. This is a sign of excellent finishing. This takes a lot of skill and time.
Generally dress shirts are stitched with double-needle, because it saves time and keeps the seams strongly held. When this type of stitch is poorly performed, it can puck in due course because of stretching of fabric and threading.
Single-needle stitch is generally found in customized dress shirts; but off-rack shirts of high quality are also seen with this stitch.
Yoke
Yoke is comparatively non-functional detail in a man’s dress shirt; however it also plays a major part in deciding the quality of the shirt.
The woven fabric behind the shoulders which attaches the front and back cloth of the shirt is called the yoke. In custom-made shirts, generally split yoke is seen, in which two separate pieces of yoke are joined halfway between the shoulder blades with a straight-line seam. This type of yoke makes it easy for the tailor to adjust the shoulders of the shirt independently for custom-fitting.
Placket
Placket is the portion in the front part of the shirt on which buttons and buttonholes are stitched. You can make a lot of variations in the placket if the shirt is made-to-order.
It is good to keep the plackets about 1 ½ inch wide and in the center of the shirt. When the two front parts of the shirt are buttoned together, the placket should give a clean finish. And of course, one sign of clean finish is the stitches should be invisible.
The placket can also be made of a separate piece of cloth which is attached to the front part of the shirt. This gives the shirt an extra stylish look.
You can also make the placket hide your buttons to create a no-buttons look. In this, the placket can be stitched by folding two fabrics one over the other with buttonholes on the backward fabric, so that the upper fabric will conceal them.
Gauntlet
This is the placket on the sleeves. Generally there is an extra button sewn on the gauntlet for extra fitting. Gauntlet too plays an important part in deciding the quality of a dress shirt.
Buttons
Though they are very small and often neglected, buttons are important components in a man’s dress shirts. If a button is broken, missing or is not matching with the shirt or with other buttons, it spoils the whole look of the shirt and creates a bad impression. Therefore the material of the buttons should be tough. Nowadays, plastic is the most preferred material for buttons because it is long-lasting. However in some high-end dress shirts, mother-of-pearl buttons are also used. This is known to be brittle, but gives an excellent luster and enhances the looks of the shirt.
Buttons should be stitched firmly and not tightly. Firmness makes them withstand recurrent handling. And they should not be over-tight so as to have room for mobility while being slid into the holes.
Pockets
Pocket is a detail of a man’s shirt which is not preferred by all men. Some stylish men don’t prefer a pocket on their shirts, because they don’t like to store a lot of items and especially pens in those pockets. The many items make the pocket look bulky and bulging out from the chest and pens might spoil the shirt by leaking. If a pocket is there, it is generally on the right side of the shirt.