I’m not very confident with color, but I am improving. That said, my favorite shirt to wear is the great white dress shirt. With companies like Brooks Brothers and Charles Tyrwhitt killing real cotton shirts and replacing them with Stepford Shirts made with toxic, formaldehyde-soaked, no-iron/wrinkle-free cotton, it’s become very difficult to find real, handsome, well-made and affordable cotton dress shirts without going custom.

After I got an email from Phil from Alara Shirt, I took a look at their site and noticed that they not only had a great selection of affordable classic fit and slim fit white dress shirts in real cotton, but they took the rare position of avoiding wrinkle-free Frankenfabric altogether. Only the real deal. And their shirts came in grown-up sizes with neck and sleeve measurements, not S/M/L/XL casual sizing. So I took Phil up on the offer to sit down with Mehmet Ulu, owner of Alara Shirt, to get the full story.

While making dress shirts for many luxury brands over the years, Mr. Ulu built strong relationships with the textile companies who supplied these brands. These relationships enabled him to acquire these premium fabrics in bulk at very reasonable cost. That reasonable cost, combined with quality manufacturing in Turkey, enables Alara to make these shirts available at a terrific price point, especially considering the average three-figure retail price of the same shirts with luxury labels sewn into them. Alara’s white dress shirts are all $59 and come in an array of weaves and textures like poplin, twill, oxford and herringbone.

Yours truly in a Regular Fit Twill Dress Shirt (left) and a  Slim Fit Micro Cord Dress shirt with French Cuffs (right).
Yours truly in a Regular Fit Twill Dress Shirt (left) and a Slim Fit Micro Cord Dress shirt with French Cuffs (right).

Mr. Ulu gave me two white dress shirts to test drive. One was a regular-fit Egyptian cotton twill shirt with adjustable barrel cuffs and a “contemporary” collar (also known as a “semi-spread” collar). The other was a micro-cord slim-fit shirt with a spread collar and French cuffs. After washing them and ironing them (I do my own shirts), putting them on felt like sliding into fresh, high thread-count bed sheets. Though I normally go with poplin for a crisp dress shirt, the twill was a nice switch for more “dress casual” moods. It felt sublime. The feather light micro-cord weave of the other shirt proved to be a breezy option for those hot days in August. Unlike the viral non-iron cotton derivative, these shirts had an exquisite hand and breathed wonderfully. This was what luxury cotton dress shirts were supposed to feel like.

In terms of fit, the regular fit was expectedly roomier and the slim was just right for me – nice and trim, while enabling full comfortable movement with no excess fabric flapping in the wind. Exactly what I like.

Mr. Ulu enlightened me to a little detail about the shirts that I otherwise might have missed. While mother of pearl buttons are aesthetically more preferable, they tend to crack or break when laundered and pressed by machines at many cleaners. The unfortunate alternative is translucent plastic, which is more durable but less attractive. Alara’s buttons balance durability with aesthetics by mixing real mother of pear “dust” into the plastic to give it that subtle touch.

Fabric and button detail of the micro-cord slim-fit.
Fabric and button detail of the micro-cord slim-fit.

When I conjur a little more confidence with color and pattern, I’m going for some of the other great shirts in Alara’s collection. For the present, it looks like I found a new favorite resource for great white dress shirts.

This post was sponsored by Alara Shirt (www.alarashirt.com).

12 Comments

  1. daniel woren

    what’s the story with their collar stays? metal? plastic?

  2. George, try Kamakura shirts, they are made in Japan in great cotton and perfect fit, they do not even fuse the collars to avoid chemicals. They have a store in NY and they are very reasonably priced.

    • Stu, Alara has 11 different styles of white Egyptian cotton shirts for sale online. We have some very light fabrics and some very thick fabrics like a Pinpoint Oxford. If you purchase one of our shirts and have any issues with it, just return it for a full refund and we’ll pay the return shipping.

  3. Thanks for the intro to this company…bummed they dont have 16.5/36 shirts! who are your 2 favorite online made to measure shirt companies?

    • George

      I would first suggest contacting them about whether or not they make your size at all. Other than that, I’m an Indochino fan for custom.

    • Mike, We are actually considering the size option you are suggesting for future production. Sorry we don’t have it now.

  4. Looks like an interesting option worth a try. I have also just ordered a shirt from MTailor – so will be able to see how it compares.

  5. You should try thr hall and madden dress shirts. The white one is the best non iron shirt I own.