What Is a Dress Shirt?

Where does the dress shirt come from?

The dress shirt has no recorded inventor or birthplace: Merriam-Webster records the term in English by 1810, and its collar has a documented history of its own.

The reference work Fashion, Costume, and Culture credits Hannah Lord Montague (1794–1878) of Troy, New York, with inventing the removable collar in 1827. The collar fastened to the shirt with a collar button and was laundered on its own, which extended the life of the shirt. The same source calls detachable collars money-saving items from a time when clothing was custom-sewn and expensive. Troy manufacturers began mass-producing detachable collars, and by 1897 the city, known as “collar city”, had 25 collar factories.

The stiff-collar era

In the first two decades of the 20th century, detachable collars were mostly white cotton or linen, stiffened by dipping them in thin starch. Some bonded cotton (“linene”) or linen (“linex”) to card stock, and others were bonded to celluloid, a flammable material. The same source lists the shapes worn:

• Straight-standing: a rigid collar two to three inches tall, worn with evening suits.
• Wing: a hard collar with its front edges folded down like wings, worn for less formal occasions.
• Fold-over: a hard collar that is turned down, also for less formal occasions.
• Spread: a softer detachable collar that extended flat, popular after the First World War.

US soldiers wore soft-collared uniforms in the First World War (1914–18), and by the 1930s only older, conservative dressers still kept detachable collars. The clean white collar also left a phrase behind: it marked office work, which led to the term “white-collar worker”.

What makes a dress shirt a dress shirt?

A dress shirt is defined by purpose: it has a collar, cuffs and a buttoned front, and it is made to be worn with a tie or with evening dress. Merriam-Webster gives two senses, “a shirt especially for wear with evening attire” and, more broadly, a shirt with buttons, cuffs and a collar “suitable for wear with a necktie”.

Why the term means different things in the US and the UK

Only the everyday sense is regional. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries marks it North American English: a smart long-sleeved shirt “that can be worn with a tie”. Its evening sense, “a white shirt worn on formal occasions with a bow tie and suit”, carries no regional label, and Merriam-Webster, an American dictionary, lists the evening sense first.

• In North American English, a dress shirt can be the evening shirt or any smart long-sleeved shirt that can be worn with a necktie.
• In British English, going by Oxford’s labels, a dress shirt is only the white formal shirt worn with a bow tie and suit. Debrett’s calls the black-tie version “a white evening shirt”.

In American English the same words can therefore mean either an everyday shirt worn with a tie or an evening shirt for black tie; in British English they mean only the evening shirt. Neither dictionary limits the term to men’s shirts; the blouse has its own entry.

What are the main types of dress shirt?

The main types follow the dress codes they serve: the white-tie shirt, the black-tie shirt and the everyday shirt worn with a lounge suit and tie. Debrett’s sets out each one.

Debrett’s also rules out ruffles and frills on a black-tie shirt. Studs may be black or decorative for black tie, plain white or decorative for white tie.

How do you tell a well-made dress shirt?

You tell a well-made dress shirt by its collar, front and seams: the collar points match and lie smooth, the placket stays flat when buttoned, and every seam is even with a consistent stitch. The checks below follow Clothing Quality Standards (E-403), a guide published by Texas 4-H and adapted from the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

Collar

• Compare the points. Fold the collar down and set the two points side by side. They should be the same shape and length, and either cleanly sharp or smoothly curved, depending on the style.
• Look at the edge. The collar should be smooth, with no wrinkles, and the outer edge seam should not show from the right side. Understitching rolls that seam under.
• Feel for the interlining. The collar should be interfaced to hold its shape, but the interfacing should not change the colour or handle of the cloth or show from the outside.

Front, buttons and buttonholes

• Button it up and look down the front. The placket should stay smooth and flat, with no gaping or pulling at any button.
• Turn the front over. Buttons should be sewn with double thread and look neat on the wrong side as well as the right.
• Check the buttonholes. They should be evenly spaced, cut with the grain of the cloth, securely stitched with even “lips”, and free of loose threads.

Seams, sleeves and pattern

• Run a finger along the seams. They should be smooth, even in width and stitched at a consistent length. As a general rule in the same standards, the lighter the fabric, the shorter the stitch.
• Follow the stripes. Stripes and checks should match at the seams.
• Look at the sleeves. They should be shaped properly and on grain, with no gathers or puckers.
• Check the topstitching. It should run in a straight line or a smooth curve, with the thread ends pulled through to the wrong side.

Read the label (US)

Under US labelling rules enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, the label must list fibre content, country of origin and the name or Registered Identification Number (RN) of the manufacturer, importer or another firm handling the product. Fibres appear by generic name with their percentage by weight, in descending order. A fibre under 5% of the total fibre weight must be listed as “other fiber” rather than named, unless it has a clearly established and definite functional significance at that amount (16 CFR 303.3(a)). Wool and recycled wool are the exception: the FTC guide says they must always be named with their percentage, even below 5%. A shirt of one fibre may say “All” instead of “100%”. Care instructions come from a separate FTC rule.

How do you wear a dress shirt?

You wear a dress shirt to match the dress code: with a tie and the top button done up for a lounge suit, and in its white evening form for black or white tie. Debrett’s gives the details:

• With a lounge suit: choose a turn-down collar rather than a button-down, wear a tie, and fasten the top button.
• For black tie: wear a white evening shirt with a turn-down collar, double cuffs, cufflinks and studs. A plain silk shirt with buttons or a fly-fronted shirt also passes; ruffles and frills do not.
• For white tie: wear a white marcella shirt with a starched detachable wing collar and double cuffs, worn with cufflinks, and studs rather than buttons down the front.

The wing collar has moved up the scale since the stiff-collar era. Fashion, Costume, and Culture describes the hard wing collar of that era as worn for less formal occasions; Debrett’s now specifies it for white tie and rules it out for black tie.