You know the ones…blue business shirts with a white collar. Do any of you wear those?
I don’t know why…I really shouldn’t get upset about a piece of clothing…but those things just bug me. Sorry if I offended anyone who does wear them.
I used to wear those when I worked for a fairly conservative investment firm. Usually with yellow or “power” ties. Then I rebelled against the dress code (hey, I work in IT–I could get my tie caught in stuff and catch on fire), and come to work in jeans and a T-shirt. Much more sensible.
I look at them now even though I rarely wear them and wonder what possessed designers to think that they looked good. I’m not going to throw them out, since they cost about 150US to buy.
(The company gave me a clothing allowance, so it’s not like I’m out the cash).
Ugh, they are extra-specially foul. They remind me of Peter’s Evil Boss from Office Space. “yeah, I’m gonna have to ask you to come in on Saturday… mmkay?”
The solid French blue dress shirts can be nice though, as long as thats a good color for you.
I agree HA…that’s exactly what I always think of when I think about those shirts. That or Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Oh, and I just remembered, yeahhhhh, I’m gonna need you to come in Sunday, too, then. Yeah, we’ve lost a couple people and, uhhh, we’re just tryin to play a little catch up…”
This type of shirt was all the rage in the mid 60’s. Not just blue, either–I remember dark pink, I’m sure there were other colors. And I believe the cuffs were white as well.
It was Carnaby Street (London?) fashion, ushered in by the gangbusters popularity of the Beatles. I rather liked them.
Yeah, those shirts are totally Bill Lumburgh.
Colin
Could you maybe show a link to a picture of one of these shirts?
My father has a white shirt with faint red stripes and a white collar and cuffs-usually worn with gold collar studs. It looks VERY classy and somewhat 1940s, I think.
Pale yellow or any soft color instead of the power blue looks a lot better, IMHO. It’s much more a British thing, that while collar and white cuffs stuff.
The blue shirt - white collar gives me the heebie-jeebies. Like you got promoted from a blue-collar job to a white collar one, but not quite.
(They also remind me of the sort of shirt a guy like Joe Pesci’s character in Casino would wear…of course I think all the guys in that movie dressed that way. Not the cool mob way like in Goodfellas, haha.)
Royal blue with constrasting collar and french cuffs is ok by me. I have one that I used to wear (I think it shrank at the laundry). They’re a little dramatic.
The Joe Pesci shirt has to have the long, pointed collars that nearly obscure the entire know of the tie. Ugh.
It’s tough to see how stupid they look from these, though…I’ll see if I can find better…
Dude! You (well, your company I guess) pay 150 bucks for a shirt???
Please tell me that was a typo!
Quasi
Nope, that was a real price. The company would pay up to 200USD for dress shirts, 300 for slacks and up to 450 for suits. Anything else was out -of-pocket, but with the tailor we used, you didn’t need it. Obscene, wasn’t it? They wanted recent graduates to look presentable if clients were in the office.
I see. I like them, actually. Old-fashioned. They’d look good with suspenders.
Seriously-my dad has a similar shirt, only with stripes and he wears it with a gray suit and a red tie. It looks VERY good.
From John T. Molloy’s New Dress for Success, by John T. Molloy, Warner Books 1988 (p.83)
"A variation of the solid-color shirt is the pastel-colored shirt with white collar and/or cuffs. When Lee Iacocca wore one on television it became instantly acceptable even in the most conservative industries, proving once again that the name of the game is “follow the leader.”
kdeus
God, I loathe the damn things. Until recently I was practicing corporate law; only the smarmiest of my colleagues ever wore them. I still remember a partner at one firm I worked for - slicked-back hair, George Hamilton tan, gold bracelet, and a penchant for the ever-suave click-of-the-tongue-plus-thumbs-up-sign manoeuvre. His secretaries were always blonde, with good legs. And always, always, always, the goddamn white collar/contrasting shirt.
I don’t think I ever spent more than $20 on a shirt, even during the brief period when I could have afforded a $150 custom model had I wanted one. (Indeed, my last legal employer was around the street from the Thomas Pink on Madison Avenue). My problem was that unless the $150 number came with some fabulous space-age coffee-proof thread, I just couldn’t be bothered. And when (inevitably) I’d manage to spill something on a cheapo shirt, it always felt nice knowing that by then I’d usually spent much more on laundering it than I had on buying it.
Well I work in a top teir asset management place here in London and one of the team wears one and I think it looks amazing, it looks like some one cares about their apperiance and is enjoying their shirt, work, and presentation of themselfs.
I am looking online about these Ive just bought a white non iron and Im looking for a high quality blue with white colar non iron in around 16 1/2 or 17.
I would perfer to have just the white collar and not white cuffs as I think that looks to much.
There is nothing wrong with these shirts.
Also whats wrong with going into the office on saturday and sundays? I have done that for the last 2 years at time and half and double rate for the sunday…
Its ok to print money, and its also ok to wear a nice shirt which these type of shirts are.
If I had to moan about any thing regarding shirts, it would be the fact that I no long fit into slim fit shirts… and I know I used to because I had around 12 £50 slim fits I had to throw out!
Seems like unless you put in 2 hours work out every day once you get over 35 the weight piles on.
Like Jack Abramoff? I think this looks Chicago gangster style. PASS
I doubt it.