When you’re rolling with the movers and shakers of the world, you need a dress shirt that can keep up. And that’s exactly what the vaunted Parisian chemise-makers at Charvet specialize in, to the delight of royalty both literal (countless French kings) and cultural (Sofia Coppola is a well-known fan). This breezy cotton number is no exception: It’s cut on the looser side and features an extremely classy double cuff for when you’re ready to break out the cufflinks you inherited from your old man. Even with the tres formale flourishes, though, we wouldn’t shy away from rocking it in a more casual context. When you slip on this sucker, you don’t need to meet with the boss—you are the boss.
“Charvet does not fuck around,” Grossman says bluntly. There’s no shortage of reasons why it remains the first name in old-world dress shirts—and its centuries of pedigree barely cracks the top five. Sure, the brand has outfitted kings, presidents, and titans of industry in equal number, but its core value proposition comes down to one exceedingly simple principle: uncompromising quality. Every dress shirt is still made by hand in Charvet’s wood-paneled Parisian townhouse, which is worth the cost of a flight to visit, Grossman notes. If you’re not quite ready to drop half a grand on a dress shirt your grandkids will fight over, he also recommends a more wallet-friendly hack: These days, Charvet’s shirts are all over the vintage market, and “you can reliably score one for a lot less than retail”.
Best Budget Men’s Dress Shirt: Uniqlo Dress Non-Iron Shirt
Fit: Slim | Material: 100% cotton, 80 count double-ply thread | Collar: Spread | Cuffs: Single button | Size Availability: XS-3XL
If it comes as any surprise that Uniqlo sells one of the best bang-for-your-buck dress shirts on the market, you’re likely new to GQ Recommends—and the Japanese retailer’s assortment of eminently affordable menswear staples. Unlike its Calvin Klein counterpart, Uniqlo’s riff on the genre isn’t available with the added benefit of Prime shipping, but what you get instead is a dress shirt that’s worth exponentially more than what you pay for.
GQ style commerce writer Gerald Ortiz wears Uniqlo’s reliably elegant button-ups even when he’s not in a bind. “From the fit to the construction,” he notes, “it’s hard to imagine a better shirt for the price.” Unlike many of its counterparts in the same price bracket, Uniqlo’s dress shirt is made from 100% long-staple cotton with nary a hint of stretch in sight. (The added elastane might promise some degree of extra comfort, but Ortiz finds it superfluous if the shirt fits like it should.) Per Ortiz, the fabric is specially treated for wrinkle resistance, a boon for the more careless among us that, unfortunately, also lends it a visible sheen he could do without. But the details redeem it completely: no sloppy stitching, exposed seams, or wimpy collars here. Perhaps most crucially, the slim fit isn’t so svelte that you’ll look like you got dressed in 2010.
More Dress Shirts We Love
Drake’s Cotton Poplin Long Point Collar Shirt
Kamakura New York Slim Fit Broadcloth Shirt
Mfpen Generous Striped Seersucker-Trimmed Shirt
Sid Mashburn Spread Collar Dress Shirt
Buck Mason Wornwell Single Needle Dress Shirt
Husbands Wide Collar Poplin Shirt
What Makes a Good Dress Shirt?
As with any garment, “good” is subjective—but as a general rule of thumb, it comes down to three crucial factors: fabric, construction, and fit. The majority of good dress shirts eschew synthetic materials in favor of natural long-staple cotton, woven tightly for extra durability. Cotton, of course, is not a prerequisite—but almost every single great dress shirt we’ve swaddled our torsos in has been made from some riff on the fabric, from poplin to pinpoint Oxford cloth. Another reliable indicator of quality? Telltale details like French or felled seams, which are sleeker and more durable; mother of pearl buttons; and a denser or finer stitch count, usually commensurate with the amount of craftsmanship involved.
Dress Shirt Anatomy 101
As any menswear wonk will tell you, dress shirts boast no shortage of nuances. So in the name of brevity (and general wonk-avoidance), we compiled a handy-dandy glossary to the terms you’ll encounter most often. As a rule of thumb, the less adornment a dress shirt has, the more formal it is.
