When getting custom shirts should you have them be dual purpose dress and sport?

[tony]

I'm finally going to be venturing into getting some custom shirts made and am wondering if anyone out there tries to save money by intentionally having them be able to serve as both dress and casual shirt?


I guess you'd do this by having the length be somewhere in between a dress shirt's length and a casual shirt's length so that it could be worn tucked or untucked.


But how do you choose fabrics and details that would work for both styles? Or should I just bite the bullet and have separate collections of dress shirts and casual shirts.

[shad0w4life]

Im just trying this out now, all my "true" dress shirts are french cuff and about 31-32". I'm not trying to do it to save money just more appropriate attire for casual times, you can get MTM for ~50 on average if you look around, or get a groupon.


Regarding what I'm planning on doing if interested:


I did order 3 that were a length of 27" which SHOULD put that right mid crotch on me and just to change it up a bit double button cuffs, I really dislike button cuffs now after cufflinks and their added personality. Also did a center plackett instead of french and had a pocket added to 1 or 2 of them. I'm doing this because I have 2 casual shirts and both are charcol primary, I should be able to tuck my casual ones in and have them as dress shirt backups if needed.


Fabric for a casual or dress doesn't really matter that much, just always get nice fabrics. A well fitting navy will look just as good casual or dress shirt. If it's big bird yellow or something along the lines of very vibrant then it'd better suited to casual for sure.

[tony]

I hadn't considered the placket feature. Do you normally pair french plackets with your french cuffs? I'm trying to think if I've ever seen french plackets paired with normal button cuffs.


Back to the original issue though, don't you feel like dress shirt fabrics are usually more sheen and not as thick as casual shirts? Possibly typically higher thread counts are used for dress shirts? I'm having a hard time coming up with the right terminology, but I just feel like there's a noticeable difference when comparing the look and feel of fabrics between dress and casual shirts not taking into account the styling features like plackets, collars or cuffs. I know that's totally nebulous. Maybe I'm just over thinking it.


Do let us know how it works out for you though. Are you targeting any specific type of pattern for your dual purpose shirts? Gingham comes to mind for me as a shirt I'd like to do double duty.

[shad0w4life]

There's a few names people use for the different placketts, it's the one that folds behind and leaves more of a plain looking uniform front(not the one that HIDES the buttons).


Sheen is usually found in either wool or polyester AFAIK and many dress shirts use a polyester blend etc. honestly if it's got sheen to it, it's more casual/club shirt than a dress shirt, you're trying to make your entire outfit jive rather than have one piece pop out like a shirt that sparkles.


Thickness depends on weave and ply really, eg. I have a 1 ply broadcloth and a 2 ply royal oxford, both are dress shirts and the broadcloth is purely a summer fabric where the royal oxford is more for not boiling hot weather.


Sounds like you are putting too much thought into it, put more time into accurate measurements and pick fabrics you like, gingham would be a good casual and business casual. NC here does matches a red one quite well to a few different colours if you want ideas.


My fabrics were

2 ply Navy broadcloth(i have no dark single colour shirts!)

blue cotton twill 2 ply egyptian(no plain blue shirts in closet, small stripes etc)

white herringbone weave 2ply egyptian(pure casual club/pub shirt as my others are long)


Was targeting more dual purpose work and play shirts that would also work with future suits. I will try iTailor in the future for patterened shirts, they have quite a few gingham sizes and good pricing.

[nicholascrawford]

To date, I've intentionally bought MTM dress shirts only. It's easy to find a $15 sport shirt on sale with sleeves that are a little too short that I can just roll up...or a collar that's too big...but I'll wear it unbuttoned anyways.


I like having a placket on a shirt because it supports the collar when it's unbuttoned and also because I have a bunch of Express 1MX shirts that have French plackets. I don't care for pockets on shirts unless they have button down collars, in which case, I think a pocket is a must.


For shirt length, I prefer going a little long on dress shirts since I'll always tuck them in. Now that I'm old, I rarely wear any shirt untucked, though.

[Sose]

My advice - if you want to save money, hit up a store like Marshall's and get nice sport shirts there and have them tailored.


If you are getting custom shirts, splurge. Make them whatever you'd like your dream shirt to be. In my opinion, these shirts should be considered dress shirts only.


My personal favorites? French (or "hybrid") Cuff with initials (I like my initials on my cuff, not on my pocket). Collar? The tailor's that I've used to get my shirts done can only pull off a button down, and I'm ok with that.

[tony]

Yea, I think I'm just still at that awkward transition age where I still like to wear untucked button up shirts for casual days, but am just way more conscious about proper fit now. I was just going through my old collection to see if there were any shirts I could salvage and bring to the tailor and realized practically all my shirts didn't fit properly.


So, I figured if I'm going to try custom, it might be wise to save a few pennies and have shirts be able to pull double duty. I think I'm going to try it with one shirt and see how it comes out first and then just be on the lookout for great deals on OTR sport shirts in the meantime.


shad0w4life - if you get a chance, post a pic of how the shirts came out. Are you doing anything special with the bottom/sides of the shirt? Like normally where dress shirts tend to be longer in the front and back but curve up towards the sides and casual shirts tend to be more flat all around...

[nicholascrawford]

I won't press it, but I'll add that it's more critical to have perfectly fitting dress shirts than casual shirts. The standards are just quite different. For casual shirts, you shop off the rack more easily because of that wider window in terms of what passes for fit. Plus, $60+ is a lot of money to me for a casual shirt. Alright, do what you want!