Scrub Up Well



Hi Readers,

This is a mens fashion blog thats real, honest, down to earth and accessible to the every day man. The aim is to encourage an effortless style at a very low budget to give you the ability to reinvent your wardrobe with just a few items and boost your confidence. The aim is to help people towards their desired style in a way that you makes you 'feel' better in what you wear. Every man in some shape or form has an interest in maintaining a good appearance...I want to advise on how to do that with little time, effort and money.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

4 Shirts Every Guy Needs








I truly believe that just like dogs, the shirt is also a mans best friend. They are a good way of slimming down certain areas and beefing up others if you get it right. If your workplace requires you to wear shirts and you want to know the best shirts to get to start off with, I've picked 4 basic shirts that should provide a good foundation of your shirt collection. 

The Size Guide.

First and foremost you need to get the right size because regardless of how nice the shirt is, it will look bad if it doesn't fit right. 3 simple steps to follow to get the perfect fit:

1. Make sure you can fit your index finger around the front part of your neck when buttoned all the way to the top. So drop your index finger underneath the collar right under your left ear, follow it around until you get to your right ear. This  should just about move around. It doesn't need to go all the way around contrary to popular belief. 

2. The arm length needs to be exact. Put your arms by your side and raise 1 arm about 45 degrees. The shirt should fit exactly from your shoulder to the bottom of your palm without any wrinkles or creases. You don't want it any shorter than this because when you wear a jacket on top, you want the cuffs of your shirt to just peep through. 

3. The fit around your body should be comfortable, depending on your body shape. There are no rules to this apart from if you're slim, go for slim fit, if you're not, go for a casual fit. The thing to bear in mind is that when you tuck the shirt into your trousers or jeans, you don't want loads of excess shirt hanging out like muffin tops. This will make your top half look wider than your bottom.

Now that the boring stuff is out the way, let me show you good value for money shirts.




The 'White Stuff'.

White shirts are essential. If I had to choose 1 item for my top half that I would have to wear for the rest of my life, it would be a white shirt. There are many benefits to the white shirt. Firstly they match with just about anything (apart from white trousers... unless you're about to meditate OR you're a millionaire living in St. Tropez, or you're a millionaire in St. Tropez and about to meditate, in which case please do wear white trousers and a white shirt, you deserve it millionaire buddha!).
It can bring attention to other parts of your clothes e.g. wearing a white shirt with a plain pair of jeans and a special pair of brogues, the attention will go to your brogues because the white shirt compliments other speciality items so well. You can dress it up or dress it down. It also makes you look healthier and here's how to test that out. Look in the mirror and look at your face, now smile. Now get a white sheet of paper and put it underneath your chin and repeat the action, you immediately look healthier because white reflects light. 








Where to get a good white shirt from? Walk all the way past Saville Row until you get to good old Marks and Sparks. For some shirts it's nice to splash out, but with this, M&S do a very good quality shirt for only £29 and best of all, it's 'non-iron' for all you men who still don't know how to iron! (click the link below to view full selection)








True Blue.


Blue is a classic colour to get and again can be mixed with a lot of things. It's preppy but not in a 'try-hard' way. Just 2 rules to bare in mind:


Rule No.1 -   Go for sky blue, not bold or navy just yet. 
Rule No. 2 - Do not wear it with grey trousers unless you work in I.T

















2 places I would suggest to go for a blue shirt







For blue shirts, you can even go for an oxford collar like the bearded gentleman above. The pro's of this is that it can be worn more casually with jeans or even shorts. The con's are that it limits the range of ties you can wear with it (usually just thin ones). The best value for money blue shirt with an oxford collar is from Gap.


Gap






Even stretching it out further....why not go for a short sleeve this summer! 




From Topman.com - excellent summer choice with chinos or skinny black jeans





The Real Pink Panther.

Royal Pink is a timeless colour that is rarely worn correctly. The issue here is that when men see pink they only think to wear it with navy. This is what I once thought and now I can see that pink goes with more things than you may think:






Again head to TM Lewin, Gieves and Hawkes and quite ironically Pink do a good Pink shirt. 


Stripe Tease.

I've added a stripe to mix it up a bit. You have 3 plain shirts, now you want something with a strip. Again I would stick to blue or pink for this one. The issue here is that you need to be careful with what tie you wear with it. Don't do spots is probably the only rule I can put on this one and even then there are exceptions (photo 2). The rest is up to you but here's some inspiration so hopefully again you'll see that there are more things you can wear with a stripe than you may have thought. 




 
 
  






And there you have it! Your 4 shirt safety net. If you're just about to start a new job and need to start from scratch, go for 2 white shirts, 1 blue, 1 pink and 1 stripe in blue or pink. That will be 5 Monday to Friday to last you to your next pay day. You could even get all 4 from TM. Lewin as part of their 4 for £90 deal if you're lucky. Click the TM Lewin link above to find your nearest store.

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