Men, just like women, are fond of showing off their feathers. Where variety and colour is a big hit with women, though, for men it?s all about smartness and understated sophistication. As a result, it can seem like shopping for men’s shirts is a trying affairs. The subtleties, though, are endless, and there are plenty of classic styles and patterns that can make a man stand out with a good set of shirts.
Men’s Shirts in Classic Plain Colours
It might not seem like the most exciting thing in the world on the rack, but a smart and solid plain white, blue, navy, or mauve shirt is one of the most stylish things a man can own. There are more complicated patterns and styles, of course, but most men would struggle to get by at work or on engagements without a good cycle of plain shirts.
Worn with a variety of different trousers and jackets ? from grey to pinstripe, overcoat to mackintosh ? plain shirts are never going to go out of fashion, and not least because of their simplicity: they are also slick, stylish and quietly sophisticated.
Striped Shirts ? The Second Classic Men’s Shirt
What can you do to enhance the flavour of a well made, carefully selected plain shirt? The first step is an easy but a noticeable one: add a set of stripes. This can give room for a whole host of colour combinations: white with yellow, purple, navy, or red, light blue with pink or black.
Stripes themselves, of course, come in different sizes. For a bolder look, thick lines are popular, and work well with primary colours. For the more understated, thin lines formed of pale colours work well.
In either case, stripes are a nice way of adding something different to a plain shirt, if too much of one colour seems like no good thing.
Men’s Shirts’ Final Pillar ? The Chequered Shirt
Now logically speaking the third consideration is to add a second set of stripes. In so doing, we get the chequered shirt, which is a favourite in office environments and in smart-yet-casual situations like dinners and gatherings.
Again thick and thin lines come into play, but with chequers its also important to think about the size of the squares: generally today small, tight chequers are favoured over wide ones.
The same colour considerations apply, too. With chequered shirts, though, there’s more of a scope for combining three colours: often chequered shirts will use a light colour like white or blue a a base, with a darker colour forming the primary lines and a lighter shade of that colour running round the outside of them.
Displaying a kind of quiet creativeness, it has a sophistication that sometimes the plain or striped shirts might lack.