Our custom shirt series comes to a close with our final installment on buttons and pockets.
Pocket or No Pocket?
When designing your custom shirt, it’s very important to decide on the style of your shirt pocket, if you wish to have one at all. When addressing the style of pocket for your custom shirt, you may consider one of the following:
No Pocket
Dress shirts with no pocket are more formal, as there’s no added bulk from the extra material a pocket necessitates. It’s de rigueur for dressier shirtings, and you will never find one of a tuxedo shirt.
One Pocket
One pocket, only over the left breast, is acceptable for office-wear, but still seen as unacceptable for formal occasions. Within the last few years, the single pocket button-down has become very trendy.
Dress Shirt Buttons: How They Can Style A Dress Shirt
A small but important part of your custom shirt is the use of buttons. With buttons, you can vary the buttons’ material, number of buttons, placement of buttons, and color of buttons. Here is a quick description of the use of buttons:
Material
Shirt buttons have two materials, mother-of-pearl and plastic. Mother-of-pearl buttons are considered more elegant, and have their own feel and texture – but nothing is wrong with the plastic buttons.
Number of Buttons
The number of buttons is difficult to judge. The majority of shirts have up to 6 placket, depending on the length of the dress shirt and the distance between buttons.
Placement of Buttons
The placement needs to be carefully decided, because if the buttons are placed too low, you run the risk of showing too much skin. If buttons are placed too high, the shirt may look silly.
Color of Buttons
Many professionals do not stray from their classic button color to stay formal, but there are proper ways to add some gentle flare in the colors of your buttons. Just be sure that the color change is not obnoxious, and kept suitable to the event or your profession.
Thus concludes the Henry A. Davidsen shirt series. Go forth and dress well!
