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Closet Staples: The Men’s Dress Shirt
There are a few items in our closets we simply can’t live without. No, we aren’t talking about that sequined jacket, no matter how much you love it. We’re talking about the items you replace when they’re worn, always take with you when you travel, and spend a little more money on because you know that you’ll wear them a lot. Closet staples.
In honour of these hard working wardrobe stars, we thought that we’d start with men’s dress shirts. Most men stockpile their favourite dress shirts because they know that a well-fitting button up is worth its weight in gold. You wear them to business meetings, on dates, and even to weddings.
The last time we wrote about dress shirts, we focused on fit and tailoring. As a brief recap, you should be able to fit two fingers in the collar, should need to unbutton the cuffs to take it off, should feel the shoulder seam resting on the tip of your shoulder, and shouldn’t see any pull on the front buttons when you have it on.
At Parkers Custom Clothing Care, we also care about clothing care (obviously!), which is why we’d like to pass along a few tips for caring for men’s dress shirts.
- Stains: We’ve all been there: you’re enjoying your meal only to discover that your shirt wanted to save some for later. While it might be tempting to scrub the stain out and then dry the spot with a hand dryer in the restaurant’s washroom, please don’t. Heat is not your friend. The best thing to do is to wet the spot with water, blot gently, and then send it to the dry cleaner in the next day or two.
- Ironing: Before ironing, take a look at your shirt’s clothing care label. It should have an icon with an iron and maybe some dots in the middle. These dots indicate how hot your iron should be (more dots = hotter). If you have any stains on your shirt (even barely visible ones), don’t iron. The heat can set the stain, making it difficult or impossible to remove later. Also, make sure to remove your collar stays before ironing to avoid warping.
- Storing: Your dress shirts should be hung in your closet with space between each shirt to allow for air circulation. Cramming them in drawers will force you to iron them more often, which is just another opportunity for them to wear out more quickly.
Even with great at-home care, dress shirts need to be dry cleaned to maintain their colour and shape. Thankfully, we offer dry cleaning pick up and delivery at no extra charge, so you can rotate out your shirts regularly, making sure that they stay in tip top shape. After all, they are your closet staples.
Before we go, we’ll leave you with a little men’s dress shirt inspiration for the weekend!
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