Shirt Anatomy

The dress shirt yoke is the panel of fabric on the back located below the collar.  It covers the entire shoulder length of your dress shirt from left to right.  The split yoke is often taken as a sign of a quality dress shirt.  The split yoke is comprised of two pieces of fabric sewn together, joined in the middle, to create the yoke.

There is still much ongoing debate on the merits of having a split yoke or unsplit yoke.  You may prefer the yoke is simply for style reasons. You may belong to the group of men who argue that the split yoke is better for a number of reasons other than simply style.  In the case of a striped dress shirt, it is said that a split yoke will make your dress shirt more stylish by letting the diagonal lines meet when sewn together at an angle.  It is also suggested that this will improve the fit of your dress shirt.  As having a split yoke often requires more work, the split yoke is often associated with more expensive and quality dress shirts.

All Michelozzo formal shirts from our ready to wear collection and made-to-measure service features the split yoke.

You may be wondering what a dress shirt placket is.  It’s basically the panel of fabric that runs down the middle front of a dress shirt and your shirt buttons run along this panel.  Plackets comes in a number of styles, with some styles exuding a greater sense of formality than others.     

The three main types of plackets are: 1. French Placket, 2. Standard Placket, and 3. Concealed Placket.

The French placket, also known as seamless the placket, is the most popular. The seamless placket is plain and does not have any distinct stitching to set apart from the rest of your dress shirt.  The French Placket is preferable as it is both stylish and works perfectly with dress shirts that have French Cuffs.

The standard placket is characterized by the raised fabric that this produced by stitching. 

The concealed placket has the distinct characteristic of hiding the buttons under an additional layer of fabric, providing a neat looking appearance. If you want a very formal look, you may consider choosing the concealed placket.

One of the most important part of a man’s dress shirt is the cuffs.  Your dress shirt cuffs are also the part that people take notice of when you reach out to shake hands.  In short, a shirt cuff is an extra layer of fabric at the lower end of the sleeve of a dress shirt.  Cuffs serve the highly practical purpose of protecting the shirt from fraying.  If fraying does occur, the cuffs can be fixed or replaced entirely without having to make major changes to the rest of the shirt.  The dress shirt cuffs is almost like a replaceable spare part.

Shirt cuffs are generally split open at one edge and then fastened together with buttons or cufflinks, so the hand can slide through and then fit snugly around the wrist.

Although there are a multitude of cuffs available for your to choose from, the most popular and widely accepted are the barrel cuffs and French cuffs.

Barrel cuffs – also known as button cuffs, have buttonholes on the one side and buttons on the other. Since they are not overly formal, they are ideal for the office and any other occasion. and suitable for various other occasions. Barrel cuffs can have a round, square or angle cut.  They can come with a single or two buttons on each cuff.

French cuffs – also called links cuffs, have buttonholes on both sides which are closed using either cufflinks or silk knots.

One of the most important part of the anatomy of a dress shirt is the buttons and buttonholes. They essentially act like the lock and key of a dress shirt.  Buttons are used to securely fasten the front end of your dress shirt like the collar and placket, as well as the cuffs on your shirt sleeves.

You’ll be glad to know that there is a rich and diverse range of buttons out there.  They come in different materials, colors, shapes and sizes.  You’ll see buttons made of resin, shell (mother of pearl), to metal and wood fibers.   Buttonholes are the small holes in the fabric which are lined with threading and are just wide enough for the buttons to slide through and remain there securely without dropping out.

Generally, dress shirts button colors are designed match the color of the dress shirt itself.  However, for a more eye chatting effect, you can choose contrasting colors for the buttons.  To make your shirt standout from the crowd, you may choose dramatic bright button colors to contrast with your shirt fabric.

Your dress shirt collar not only affects how formal your shirt feels but it can also help enhance your face shape.  Always remember to make sure that you can fit two fingers inside your collar.  This will ensure you can feel comfortable while wearing your dress shirt.  We offer you the four most classic and time honored types of collar for your dress perfect shirt:  1. the Londoner, 2. the English Spread, the 3. Straight Point, and 4. the Button Down. 

Londoner – The Londoner is our most corporate collar, boasting the widest collar point spread in our collar range. This formal collar is quintessentially British, and looks superb with medium to larger sized knots.

English Spread – The English Spread Collar is a classic which always makes it a safe choice.  It has a wider spread which can accommodate a fuller knot. It also looks great unbuttoned.

Straight Point – The Straight Point Collar’s can be worn in all most any situation.  It has a narrow spread that fits nicely in a suit jacket and will have a slimming effect on men with round faces. 

Button Down – The Buttoned Down Collar is slightly more casual. This collar looks terrific opened and goes perfectly with a sweater or blazer.

Contrast Collar – Originally a key fashion item of 1980s corporate tycoons (think Gordon Gekko), the contrast collar dress shirt is experiencing a revival. This look is still on the rise, but the contrast collar dress shirt now worn a bit differently. Now, it’s not only just for business suits.  Contrast collar dress shirts are now developing a more laid-back feel. Many men now enjoy wearing contrast collar dress shirts with a blazer, sweater, cardigan, and denim to spiff up their looks.  Why not give it a go youself?

The shirt base is the body of the dress shirt.  The shirt base is made up of the front side and back side of the shirt which when sewn together becomes the shirt body.  The back of the shirt can be with or without pleats.  The back pleats are the folds formed by doubling fabric back upon itself.  The ending of the back of the shirt can come in different cuts.  This is also referred to as the bottom cut of the dress shirt.

The back of the shirt comes in three different styles: 

1. No Pleats,

2. Center Pleats, and

3. Side Pleats.

Pleats helps to give a fuller shape to the back and is especially good if you have a smaller build as it gives more body to the dress shirt.  You may also find that pleats gives you more room to move.  Some just like pleats simply for appearance, treating it as style option.  Research has shown that men in Great Britain tend to prefer side pleats while their American counterpart tend to prefer center pleats.

The shirttail or bottom cut style refers to the ending part of the shirt base. The two main types of shirttails are the Tail Cut and the Square Cut.  The Tail Cut looks better than the Square Cut when the dress shirt is not tucked in. On the other hand, the Square Cut shirttail is much easier to be kept tucked in due to its square shape.

Men’s dress shirt sleeves can either be long sleeved or short sleeved. Generally, the width of the shirt sleeves tend to be wider than the shirt cuffs which is why they are often pleated when sewn with the cuffs. If you want a more masculine touch, then have pleats on the shirt sleeve is the way to go.

The way sleeves are constructed are influenced by the choice of cuffs as the sleeve width need to be adjusted to the cuffs selected.  As you would expect, shirt sleeves for slim fit dress shirts obviously tend to be more snug fitting.  Unlike long sleeves which have cuffs, short sleeves would have sleeve endings which are either the more popular singletop style or turnup style.

For a more youthful and athletic look, you may prefer short sleeves with turnup style endings.  This is flattering to your physique when snugly wrapped around your pumping biceps.

While some people believe that pockets provide a convenient place for hold small items like pens and card, others think that a shirt becomes less dressy with the addition of a pocket.  Pockets are not usually found in more formal dress shirts.  Pockets on dress shirts are usually placed on the left side breast.  Pockets can come various shapes like square, round and angled.  Pockets are really a personal choice though, so you can decide whether to include them or not in your dress shirt.