Essentials of a Work Wardrobe - Dress Shirts

Will be worn daily and always need to be clean and pressed. This means that having between 8 and 12 dress shirts will ensure there is always a clean one to be worn. Even if the office allows for polos to be worn, wear a dress shirt Monday through Thursday and leave the polo for occasional Fridays. Don't become the polo on every Friday guy, that looks too routine. A nice oxford cloth with jeans is always a good look. For dress shirts, conservative and classic will ensure the most use out of the shirts and that
they will work with the widest range of ties.

For shirts a young professional should stick with barrel cuffs and have a healthy mix of button down and semi-spread collars. The shirts should include at least two plain white shirts, a light blue shirt, an oxford cloth light blue, a white shirt with blue pinstripes, a blue and white banker stripe, a tattersal and a check shirt. Additional shirts should be more experimental in colors and patterns. These colors should include light pink, lavender, pale green or light gray. The patterns should be multi-colored check, multi-stripes and ginghams. The experimental shirts can include blue checked shirts with an orange or green over check. But like with the suits, these outliers are worn less often than the conservative options.

It also must be noted that a closet full of patterned shirts should have a closet of plain shirts to compliment it. While a closet of busy shirts should have a lot of plain suits to compliment the wardrobe. Busy shirts and busy suits makes for obnoxious outfits.

The best place to buy dress shirts are: Banana Republic, H&M, Brooks Brothers, Macy's & Uniqlo.