The Dress Shirt Has its Day
by Ray A. Smith, The Wall Street Journal
Mar. 12, 2014
Women may have their shoes. But men have their shirts.
Thanks in part to a wave of dapper dressers in pop culture like James Bond and Don Draper, the men’s dress shirt is having its moment. Ray Smith takes a look inside the obsession, and dress-shirt aficionado Greg Root shares his perspective. Photo: “Mad Men”/AMC &”Casino Royale”/MGM.
Men can be a little obsessed with dress shirts, owning loads and geeking out on such details as stitching on buttons or cuffs, fabric weight, and how stiff a collar stands up when worn under a jacket or sweater without a tie. Some men say they’re just being practical: More shirts mean less laundry. Others just can’t help themselves.
The man’s shirt is having a moment. Stores are giving shirts more prominence. Barneys New York’s Madison Avenue flagship store recently freed shirts from their plastic bags and boxes to display them colorfully on its shelves. British brands such as Thomas Pink and Charles Tyrwhitt have brought brighter colors, bolder patterns and slimmer fits to the U.S. Men are more free to go far beyond white and French blues into more daring territory like gingham checks and lilac hues.
