A quality men's shirt defines the style and image of the wearer!
Brief history and origin of the SHIRT
The origin of the men's shirt as an undergarment still lives on in the elegance of many contexts in which it is embarrassing or even inadmissible to appear without it. From the beginning, the garment symbol of comfort was predominantly white so as to demonstrate to others the whiteness and cleanliness of the wearer, while the collar, which until the early '900 was always the Korean style, was later supplanted by the reversed collar that, like the first, was still separated from the shirt body so that it could be washed independently. Over the centuries, the shirt has undergone considerable aesthetic and therefore stylistic evolutions, becoming in all respects a garment capable of connote the stylistic identity of the wearer and the look of which it is part. Today the shirt is made according to the model in different types of materials. We can find shirts made of Poplin, the well known Oxford or Piqué fabric and more: Batista, Flannel, Silk, Shantung, Linen etc etc..
A fabric for every look
The fabric used to make an elegant or casual man's shirt is the first characteristic that helps to define its aesthetic characteristics in terms of comfort, occasion of use and therefore image: dozens of fabrics can be distinguished, which in turn can be made even different through washing treatments (stone wash) or fabric mix. Fabrics such as batiste, sea island, twill twill are, for example, excellent fabrics for making formal shirts, while fabrics such as Oxford, poplin, barbed twill, pinpoint are instead fabrics, suitable for stonewashed treatments, useful for making shirts for leisure or for an informal look.
The collar defines the style
The collar defines the style of a shirt more than any other element. There really is a collar for every style, for every face and even for every occasion of use. The elements that make up a collar are: the height of the pistagna that defines the height of the collar, the position and the shape of the sails. In general, if the sails are very open and backwards and the tips are distant from each other, we speak of a French collar; if the sails are open but with the tips on the front we speak of English collar; if instead the sails are closed and the tips close together we speak of Italian collar; to these collars is then added the famous collar invented by the American company BROOKS BROOTHERS or button down shirt, a collar with the sails closed and the tips close together and tied on the body shirt by two buttons.
All collars can be soft, semi-rigid or stiff, offering the shirt a more informal and personal look in the first case or classic and austere in the last. Each one of the collars listed above, is born with a formal or informal vocation, but over the years, due to evolutions and stylistic customization, have found new forms of use and new aesthetic functions: in fact, it is normal to see wearing the classic French collar instead of buttoned and with tie, unbuttoned and combined with an informal jacket or shirt as well as a button down leisure time worn with a tie.
The choice of buttons, those details that make the difference
There are several materials that can be used to make buttons for shirts: from classic plastic buttons to wooden buttons(innovative and design), the most valuable buttons continue to be the buttons in mother of pearl, a material made from Australian shells and widely used for its hardness and natural shine.
In the past, there have been gold and silver buttons, embellished with engravings depicting the different coats of arms of the noble families.
Today, in addition to the "evergreen" mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, many are the "new" materials introduced for the creation of shirt buttons, in fact, you can find on the market buttons in coconut, wood, ivory and even leather, the latest frontier design fashion Italian and international men's shirts.
The good shirt
There is no doubt that a good man's shirt can be recognized by the quality of the fabric and the quality of the construction of its collar, but there are other details that define the quality of its construction: for example a collar equipped with removable splints that are useful to give the right curvature to the neck; the amount of stitches in the seams per centimeter (minimum 8) that define the resistance of the shirt and that must be to a needle; the fly or the triangle of reinforcement sewn to close the seam between the front and the back of the shirt; or the folds sewn on the attachment of the cuffs. A good quality shirt plays a decisive role in defining the style and image of the wearer, so it is necessary for the attentive and elegant man to entrust the choice of his shirts to conscious assessments of the dozens of aesthetic combinations between collars, fabrics and treatments and the meaning and aesthetic value they can communicate; combinations that allow to create shirts capable of communicating the sense of our look and our way of being fashionable.
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