How many shirt ?

Article écrit par Will du blog "A Suitable Wardrobe" avec son aimable autorisation.

Bientôt une traduction quand j'aurai le temps à moins qu'une âme charitable se dévoue...


"There are two important things to think about when you think about shirts. First and foremost, they must fit you. That means you should have them made for you, even if you are the guy they made the ready to wear pattern for (no rational man should be satisfied with the selection of fabrics and collar styles at his local retailer).

Made to measure and bespoke shirts are unique in the world of classic men's clothing in that they are available from a variety of sources for no more than the cost of comparable ready to wear shirts. Any man spending more than $75 apiece on ready to wear shirtings should immediately find himself a shirtmaker.

And that in turn leads to the other important thing to think about, which is how many shirts are required. At the low end, the size of an inventory is determined by the number of shirts worn each week, and how they are laundered. Men who send their shirts out to the laundry usually need a two week supply of shirts so half the inventory can be ready to wear while the other half is at the laundry.

In turn that leads to one of the rules about shirts. There should be more than one of each basic shirt, so there is one to wear that's appropriate for the occasion and season while the other shirt of that type is at the laundry.

Most shirting weaves are fine for year-round wear but some are strictly seasonal. Year-round fabrics include poplin, broadcloth and end on end. Warm weather fabrics, loosely woven to promote air circulation, include voile and linen. Twill, royal oxford, oxford and many herringbones are for cooler days.

But back to how many. In The Man's Book, Thomas Fink proposes that the number of shirts required for a purpose is equal to the square root of the number of days involved. That solves to 19 shirts for a 365 day year. Men can add sophistication to that number by dividing their local year into temperate, cold and hot periods. Count work days to calculate a work wardrobe comprised of spread, cutaway, point and tab collar shirts, and weekend and holiday days for a casual wardrobe. Buttondown collars are useful for casual hours because they stand up better without a necktie, or under a sweater. Round each number to the next highest integer and add them together. The total is your shirt requirement.

Men with wardrobes in excess of a couple dozen shirts can skip this exercise and use the time saved to ponder other mysteries of the universe."