Casual Observations on Business Shirts

It never ceases to amaze me that people pay ludicrous sums of money for ready made shirts.

I have spent the last month roaming the streets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane looking for someone passing by who has a shirt which even looks close to fitting them. Alas not a great deal of luck I am afraid. I have seen some lovely fabrics and the men wearing them sporting a false sense of pride in their immaculate deportment. I am especially amazed at the expense they go to with their suits only to be poorly let down by the fit of their shirts.

Wearing ready made shirts is akin to fitting a square peg in a round hole. I have met very few men who can honestly say that their shirt is a perfect fit - there is always some form of sacrifice. The all time classic is wearing a shirt which 2 sizes too small in the collar so that they can wear something that doesn't resemble a spinnaker.

We are all individuals, and with that basic human condition comes the rule that we are all different. For instance, I could line up myself and 9 other customers who have the same collar size as me and our heights would range between 5'4" up to and beyond me at 6'7". The same is true of our sleeves, our waists, our chests, in fact every dimension that we use to create a shirt.

I have had an endless trail of people coming into the fitting rooms and telling me their tales of woe about buying an expensive shirt and then spending another $40 odd retailoring it to size. There is some kind of strange logic there I am sure.

Gentlemen, do yourselves a favour and get thee to a tailor.