Yes. I have five of these, in different colors. Love 'em. Only after going through the usual unfolding rigamarole with the last one I bought, in black, I discovered it had French cuffs. Why the hell would this one have French cuffs when all the others, that appear to be the identical design, had button cuffs? How was I supposed to know this? I’ve never owned a French-cuffed shirt in my life. I had to ask for a pair of cuff links for Christmas.
And I’m wearing it today. 
I used to work in low-level men’s retail in college, and dress shirts were my nemesis. When they were returned or tried on, we were expected to put them back the way they were - exactly. Of course this is mostly impossible, but it didn’t stop the closing manager from yelling about them. Most of the time I would fold things up to look as close as possible minus the pins/latches/torture-instruments and put them on the bottom of the stack so it was harder to tell.
Eventually they got smart and we just started hanging up the unfolded shirts on the really nice hangers on a near-by rack. I’m pretty sure we had a mini-steamer in the back. It saved so much time even if it didn’t look great (but I’m guessing a high-end store wouldn’t allow that).
Jolly good! That reminds me of the time that my uncle the Baron survived the attack of a pack of rabid Congalese landsharks with nothing to defend himself but one stray pin his manservant, Cholmondeley, had missed finding in his new, starched white dress shirt.
Although perhaps I overstated – it was one stray pin and an “Inspected by Number 17” sticker, as I recall…
Pip pip! Good show! I’m quite certain that I would have required no less than two stray pins and a collar stay to perform the same feat.
If A Priori Tea’s excellent advice fails, try soaking the blood stain in hydrogen peroxide (the dilute stuff sold over the counter, not the stuff in the lab) and then laundering as normal. If the blood stain is dry, soak in cold water to rehydrate and then soak in hydrogen peroxide. Works pretty well on cotton, polyester, and wool. Should work on silk, but I haven’t bloodied a silk shirt yet.
Why, thank you.
I should note that I don’t actually wear Hawaiian shirts very often. I needed one for a skit or something, and the other one just looked really cool. I tend to stick with bush shirts in loud colors for my short-sleeve button-down needs.
I always took my husband’s dress shirts to be laundered and pressed. He always looked sharp, and the guys who attempted to launder and iron their own shirts (or whose wives weren’t very skilled with an iron- doing a dress shirt is a real skill) looked like hell.
Nordstrom has great men’s dress shirts, and they were $37.50 every day, in every color. Great quality, good lasting power, and look great. I wouldn’t buy a dress shirt at Wal*Mart unless I was going to be painting the house in it.
My husband’s one shirt from Wally World is shoved into the furthest reaches of the closet. It did its duty when we were living hand to mouth as undergrads, but now that he’s in his last semester of law school you better believe I make him wear the good stuff. The WW shirt is tissue thin and won’t hold a press for shit, even if I starch the shit out of it.
The main reason I don’t buy department store shirts is that department store shirts don’t fit me. I’m fairly trim (all right, skinny), and the average department store shirt (including, IME, Van Heusen) is cut for the average man, who is not quite so skinny as I. Such shirts tend to look rather like tents on me. On the other hand, Express shirts, 1MX and otherwise, are cut slimmer; the extra care I have to take with them is a small price to pay for shirts that actually fit.
Edit: Also, Express shirts are actually better than most when it comes to packaging. The three clips to remove are far better than the 7-8 straight pins. Plus, the shirts usually come with metal collar stays now, which is a nice touch.
Then whatever do you wear for dueling?
I wear silk for dueling, Necros, I just haven’t lost yet.
I’m 6’ and 150 lbs.
I hope my shirts don’t look like tents.
You forgot the best part. Half the buttons fall off during the wash cycle.
The usual problem is too much fabric at the waist – you end up with an excess of shirt bunched up or billowing out just above your beltline, as though your shirt is trying to un-tuck itself. Not a good look.
Hence, “fitted” shirts were made. But now they’re in vanity sizing, so they don’t fit anyone, either.
And, of course, the standard shirts were re-sized to accomodate the ever-expanding “average” American waist size. And that style looks pretty awful on men who actually fall into that category.
Begging the question: What kind of freaky body do you need to wear an off-the-rack shirt, anyway?
Custom shirts are the answer here–they fit perfectly every time. Make sure to get high arm holes.
At a hundred bucks a pop, I think I’ll just wear off-the-rack shirts and use the leftover $70 to buy enough Big Macs to make sure they fit.