My serious suit and tie dress shirt of choice is a slim fit with a semi-spread collar and French cuffs in regular cotton (NEVER no-iron/wrinkle-free). But for casual modes on the weekend, I love white pinpoint oxford shirts with a button-down collar. They’re perfect with jeans, chinos or even shorts outside of the city. I have four of them, all identical, and count them among my favorite garments in my entire wardrobe.
Here’s my conundrum: my preferred basic, essential dress shirt is a solid white or solid pale blue slim-fit shirt with a 3″ semi-spread collar, French cuffs, a 15.5″ neck and a 35″ collar in regular cotton poplin for under $80 or so.
One would think that such a shirt would be easy to find. Basic and uncomplicated, right? Au contraire, mon frere.
As nice as some of them can be, most inexpensive dress shirts are sized in the very general small, medium, large, extra-large and even double-extra categories. Some purveyors have refined slightly further with slim fits. This is all fine if…