SHIRT BASE

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.