Premium Business Shirts – Know what you’re wearing
photo by cuttlefish
When you’re looking at business shirts, you need to remember it’s a mixture of three things: fibre, thread count and weave. These three things will produce the shirt’s look and feel; they will be what determine the end product.
A look at the fabrics of business shirts
Twill – When you decide to use twill business shirts, you’ll notice that it has a diagonal pattern, which gives it a unique look. However, the texture is tough and only looks good on shirts that have one colour; thus the patterns are far more evident. It’s lighter than Broadcloth and Oxford but very robust; it also doesn’t soil as easily.
Cotton (fibres) – These kinds of shirts breathe quite well, are generally soft and are the most comfortable of any material. It’s a good heat conductor; it feels and looks natural and has the greatest overall quality. For those reasons, it can be quite costly at checkout time. Bear in mind that cotton wrinkles very easily. Thus, blended shirts (which are more common) are less expensive, free of wrinkles and can keep you plenty warm. However, it’s less comfortable than 100 percent cotton. Also, these should not be worn in the summer because they rarely breathe.
Oxford (weaves) – Oxford type clothing is very soft and durable, which makes it a very popular weave. It may be worn for either casual or formal events. It’s also got a basket weave appearance, which means the fabrics cross over in pairs. Pinpoint Oxfords are a high quality type of Oxford; it’s lightweight with a fine texture. Royal Oxford clothing is geared toward the finer, formal occasions.
Broadcloth – This type of fabric is tightly woven and has a silky texture, which gives the clothing a smooth and formal look. In fact, this is the most formal business shirt you can have in your wardrobe; it can be found in a variety of styles, colours and patterns. It’s wonderful to wear in the autumn and spring months.
Poplin – This material consists of 100 percent cotton and has a soft content feel to it. You don’t have to do much ironing to it either. This is the kind of shirt you want to wear. It’s got a smooth look to it although the shirt gives a visibly seen fine horizontal ribbed effect. Since it can drape the body well, it’s important that you get the right size.
Herringbone – If you want a custom business shirt, you can’t do much better than the Herringbone, which is a tightly woven fabric that also gives a fine ribbed effect. It’s used in conjunction with twill, which creates a weave that has rows going in opposing directions (zigzag pattern). This patterns looks best on solid coloured shirts since it can clearly bring out the shirt details. When compared with the Oxford shirt, the Herringbone is smoother and classier. It’s not a commonly seen weave but certainly original.
Understanding a shirt’s thread count
On your tag, you’re going to see an odd number; this is your thread count number. It lets you know just how many pieces of thread were used to design your shirt. The majority of business shirts use between 40 and 160 threads to make a shirt. The higher the number is, the better the quality (meaning the softer and finer the finished shirt will be). A lower thread count tends to mean the shirt is low quality. However, don’t be entirely fooled since it could mean it’s heavy fabrics used in the wintertime.
Ply is another factor when considering the thread count of the business shirt. Ply means the amount of thread that was twisted together just before the shirt was designed. Two ply means two strands twisted together to create a tough and smooth fabric. One ply is just one strand… this is usually found in low quality made shirts. It basically boils down to this scenario:
2-ply, 80 thread count business shirt is going to be better than the 1-ply, 120 thread count.
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