Dress Shirt - Materials

Materials

Shirts are made of woven cloth. The natural fibers used in the past were cotton (the most frequent), linen (the oldest), ramie, wool or silk. Nowadays, artificial fibers such as polyester or polyester blends are often used, due to their low cost, despite being considered by most shirtmakers the poorest material, owing to less softness and breathability. However, while high quality cotton shirts can survive with care a few decades, a polyester/cotton blend may be used in more demanding environments. Linen produces a cool fabric that wrinkles heavily, and is mostly used in light summer shirts. Cotton is therefore the standard material for all but the cheapest shirts. Silk is occasionally worn, though it is hot to wear and has a marked sheen.

Yarns from these fibers are woven into a variety of different weaves, the most notable of which include broadcloth, with double the number of warp to weft threads, giving a smooth, formal shirting; twill, where the tucks of the weft do not line up, giving a diagonal pattern, a weave used for most country checked (e.g. Tattersall) shirtings; poplin, with a heavier warp than weft, giving more formal fabric; and Oxford weaves. Plain Oxford or pinpoint Oxford weaves are popular as casual fabrics, so are generally used in combination with a button-down collar, while royal Oxford is versatile enough to be used on both sporty and formal shirts. There are many other weaves or variations on these, including end-on-end patterns, where alternate white and coloured threads are used, giving a mottled appearance, or more exotic weaves, including voile and batiste, which are extremely light fabrics only used for summer shirts or on the unseen parts of formal shirts.

The use of pattern and colour is also significant. Originally, in the Edwardian era, when the modern shirt emerged, all shirts were white. Gradually more colours were introduced, including blue, the most popular colour, particularly in lighter shades such as Wedgwood. A full range of colours is now worn, from pink to yellow. Less traditional shirts are also made with darker colours, even black, and bright or lighter colours and prints for very casual wear were popularised after the War by light holiday clothes such as Hawaiian shirts.

The intended use of shirts dictates different choices of pattern. For example, country shirts are usually checked, with checks of different size to co-ordinate with tweeds of different pattern, and featuring one, two, or sometimes more colours of check over a light cream or white background. For city shirts, plain or striped designs are more common, most stripes being vertical, while horizontal stripes are a legitimate and more formal option. Herringbone patterns are worn informally and casually. Some colours, such as purple or pink, are generally only worn with city shirts. Further, the use of colour is seasonal, with shades like green being associated more with autumn than summer ones like yellow. Colours and patterns may be chosen for more than simply aesthetic reasons, as trends such as power dressing (first noted in Molloy, Dress for Success ) emphasise the social impact of clothing. For example, a City executive might stereotypically wear strong vertical patterns for meetings to emphasise his authority.