Carrying off a lavender shirt

Lavender shirts may not be for everyone, simply because some are afraid of it. But with right pairing, it will fill you up with confidence.

Long sleeve dress shirts are the most important part of a man’s wardrobe. This is how he gets to expand it – as it is costs much less than other parts of the wardrobe and still offer one of the widest ranges to choose from. One can wear a long sleeve dress shirt with tie and a coat, or without one or the other, or without any of them. They can double up for casual wear and you can fold up the sleeve based on the occasion.

Long sleeve dress shirts are classified based on the cuffs. Ones which have no cuffs are considered the most formal and have to be paired with a jacket always. These are called French Cuffs. While, Barrel Cuffs can work both in formal and casual settings as the buttons at the cuff allow them to be worn even without a jacket. They may have single button or two buttons in a row.

We have come a long way from when the only choice that a buyer had was a white shirt with buttoned down collars. Today we have a range that starts with the traditional white shirts goes through striped dress shirts and ends with funky colors like the lavender dress shirts. 

Colors like pink and lavender have been popular as accents for a long time. But on the right person, they work very well as solids too. Lavender dress shirts with alternating purple and white lines may be a great addition to your wardrobe if you have the right built for it. Paired with khaki trousers, it will be a great addition to your wardrobe – even for semi-formal occasions given it is a lighter shade of the color. For darker shades, choose jet black trousers. 

 Dress shirts and ties are always thought of together. Earlier wisdom was to match the tie with the jacket or tux. But people are getting more adventurous now. A tie with bold purple squares on it will go well with your lavender shirt, though if you prefer more planer ties – pick dark blue for darker shades of lavender and sky blue for the lighter shade. A silver white tie also looks great on light lavender colored striped dress shirts.

Another thing to take care of while wearing dress shirts and ties is that a striped tie is always to be paired with a striped dress shirt, but it is very important to make sure that the distance between the strips and, if possible, even the thickness of the strips is different. Otherwise the tie will create an illusion of motion that will make you look strange.

Checks are the most casual pattern you can have on a dress shirt. But a lot of people avoid these believing these would overpower the whole suit. This might not happen if you have chosen the right thickness. Always remember that your suit should not have checks if your shirt does; same goes for the tie. Pair a solid suit with a checks shirt, and you are all set for your meeting. Unless it is one of those extremely formal meetings where you have to meet the queen herself, checks work.

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