Everything has a different fit so I suggest trying out different brands to see what fits. For very cheap shirts (30-40$) I've heard good things about modern tailor but never used them. Uniqlo is opening an online store very soon and their button downs are great for the price. For more mid level stuff try J Crew or some of Brooks Brothers non-iron stuff - I'd just buy that until you can afford something better. Personally I think it's way better to have like 2-3 $100 shirts than 6 $40 shirts.

Is it fine to wear the same few really nice shirts every weekend though?

Wont people always notice you wearing teh same thing? or does it even matter?

bro i dont even remember what i had for breakfast yesterday

Best be a ton of protein brah

Well I'm assuming you already have some clothes, just keep cycling them out and saving up for better shirts.

My point was if you have $200 to spend on shirts it's better in the long run to get 2 nice ones than 5 cheaper ones

I think with 200$ you can get 3 nice ones if you bargain hunt.

I think tiers in terms of button downs are like:

<40$
50-80$
80-120
120+

Did the Indochino deal. Shirt fits quite well.

Agree with this. I'd also highly recommend tailorstore.com; it's an online MTM store. The first shirt I ordered from them was a little off fit-wise (but still better than anything OTR), but with a couple adjustments now all my button downs fit absolutely perfect and they all cost $70-$130. They're better quality than I expected as well.

Even adjusting for lower US prices anything below $80 as the regular price is going to look cheap. $80-120 is entry level. $120-220 is decent. A nice shirt is always going to be $200+

I recently went dress shirt shopping with my incredibly broke friend because he had a job interview in hopes of fixing his situation. We tried Winners (Canadian version of TK Maxx) and even there shirts were $60. We ended up at Moores which is a garbage store and a presentable but still clearly a cheap shirt was $80-100 They did have a buy one get the second for 1/2 price sale so he was able to buy two for ~$145 once you factor in taxes.

For his situation that made sense since he can't really afford to take care of the shirts but normally I'd say don't buy shirts like that. If you spend the money on a nicer shirt and actually take care of it once you amortize the cost of wearing it for two or three years it comes out to next to nothing. Meanwhile with cheaper shirts they look cheap from the outset and they look horrible and are unwearable a few months into owning them.

I think shirts are the exception to the rule.
Shirt fabric is so ridiculously cheap anyways, spending $120 on a shirt seems not smart. Also a lot of the more expensive shirts are just non-iron, which is terrible quality-wise.

What is shirt fabric?

Shirts are not all made from the same fabric. There is a massive difference between the costs of different qualities and weaves of cotton. Further, different weaves are suited for different types of shirts so even using an expensive fabric is not enough if the producer uses it incorrectly.

Then there is the issue of stitching and if the shirt has a pattern then issues with proper construction. I guarantee that anyone who knows anything about clothing will be able to tell you how much a shirt cost on sight.

I was refering to generic cotton shirt fabric.
Obviously, there are differences between fabrics, but for shirts it seems to be the closest gap. Also, all the MTM shirt sites usually have a 20%-30% jack up for non-ironing (similar price increase for linen and organic cotton).
All the lower price, known brands advertise with non-ironing these days and this makes shirts more expensive.

And obviously construction is a point, but most of the stuff is done by machine until a way higher price range than $120. Afaik even Zegna, which charges $350 per shirt, use improper construction on the sleeves (i.e. non matching).

Edit: Found the link on Styleforum: http://www.styleforum.net/t/2492/shirt-fabrics/0_100

That is what I mean. There is no generic cotton shirt fabric. My guess is that you are thinking Oxford which is the most common. Oxford itself is broken down into types of Oxford. That is only dealing with the weave then you still have other characteristics of the fabric.

It isn't like suits where some of the expensive fabrics can get into stratospheric prices but you are still looking at differences of between 2x and 6x for fabric. Something like supima will cost four to five times as much as pinpoint which is already more expensive than oxford. That is without even getting into the more technical descriptions of fabrics which involve numbers that I only vaguely understand.

Non-ironing is not what I'm talking about. I've never owned a non-ironing shirt so not really familiar with them. My completely ignorant opinion is that non-ironing is bad.

I don't shop Zegna so can't comment. I did say $120 was the start of decent not that they were perfect. At $120 you start getting shirts that are made from better fabric and with better construction but still not good. I set the good mark at $200+ and that was going lower than I would have said if this wasn't student life.

I wasnt talking about Oxford in specific. The prices for Twill, Oxford and Poplin are all roughly the same for the same cotton quality.

I think your prices are way off here. $200+ for a shirt, you can get WW Chan (arguably best HK tailor) for $300 to $350 bespoke (with very good fabrics, it can get more expensive than that).
I know that the Canadian retail market is a lot more expensive than anywhere else, but for $100, you can get a very good shirt from an online MTM maker.

I don't have any experience with online shopping. I'm pretty much against buying clothing online. What I can say is that for less than $100 you can't buy a shirt in any retail store that I won't be able to instantly tell you that it cost less than $100.

With respect to MTM it is actually a great deal. A good MTM shirt will cost about the same as a good manufactured shirt. It shouldn't be that way but it is. The only advantage retail has is that you can buy a shirt when you want a shirt while with MTM you are going in to get multiple items at the same time so it makes cost lumpy.

done a bit of shopping today and bought these:









the inside hood of the bodywarmer is actually blue, what do you guys think about wearing the blue cardigan under the body warmer?

it will look a bit like this, but mine will look better and match

Online shopping is far better than going to a retail store. I imagine it can be difficult to even find really high quality shirts in retail stores. There are numerous options online that just blow away retail clothes shopping.

Fit is the most important aspect of clothing shopping. You can't try stuff on with online shopping. Yes you can return stuff but typically I'll like and try on a pretty high multiple of items. I just can't see how buying eight shirts and then returning six is a good system.

Online also fails when it comes to material and quality. It is really hard to judge if something is a good garment or not online. Yes again you can just return it but this turns shopping into a massive project that it really doesn't have to be.

I find retail shopping is really easy. In Ottawa basically it sucks but you have two major options and a few small stores. In Toronto and Montreal you have considerably greater options but all the good stores are conveniently contained in the same area and walking distance. If someone lives in the middle of nowhere then I can see maybe online is better than driving several hours to a city but if you live in a city retail is much better than online.

Falser words have never been spoken.

Assuming you no your fit of certain brands online shopping is fine, but if you have the retail stores near you>irl online.

Well the best is to find out your size by going to the place then shopping deals online.

I find this morally wrong.
You pay a premium in retail because you can actually see how it fits and dont have to go through the hassle of what Henry described.
If you try something on retail and you like it, buy it.

I prefer online due to selection way better.

lol at morally wrong

There's already been an extended discussion on doing stuff like this, I think it was in OOT.

Shopping in store is so much easier and faster anyway. Once you've been to a store a couple of times, you have a relationship with the salesperson and call or email them ahead saying you'll be coming in soon and what items you are interested in. They prepare a bunch of stuff for you to try on - that way you can try on a couple dozen garments in <1 hour. And they are also going to know how to properly adjust the garments that you do buy. It's just so much more convenient to shop in store that it's easily worth the markup.

Guess I have to specify everything. Yes, go to the retail store to get your fit. I generally buy a few brands, so I know what works. Regardless, the worst scenario is the garment is one size too big or small. I just return it. It really doesn't take much effort and honestly I almost never go to the mall. Good clothes are going to fit correctly if you know your size. If the sizes are astronomically different, then it's as simple as returning it since it probably is just the brand.

I think the mall is a good place to scope new chicks and show DHVs while shopping at Macys

What about things even as simple as shortening the sleeves on a dress shirt? I've had to get that done on most shirts I've bought. Now rather than having it done at the store, you have to take the garment somewhere yourself.