Tour any guy’s clos­et and you’ll almost cer­tain­ly find a mens white dress shirt.  It’s been a sta­ple in men’s attire going back over 100 years.  To most men white dress shirts all look the same, which couldn’t be fur­ther from the truth.  There are a num­ber of dif­fer­ent attrib­ut­es (col­lar, cuff, plack­et, etc…) along with fab­ric com­bi­na­tions that can change the look of the white dress shirt sig­nif­i­cant­ly. In this guide, we show­case a num­ber of dif­fer­ent fab­rics and attrib­ut­es suit­able for dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments across all price points.

Mil­ward White Oxford by Deo Ver­i­tas paired with black design­er jeans

Our Favorite Mens White Dress Shirts — Do’s and Dont’s and Where to Buy Them

The Standard, All Purpose Mens White Dress Shirt

White Twill Non Iron Shirt from Deo Ver­i­tas

Fabric / Attributes:

• Pin­point or Twill Weave
• Eng­lish (Medi­um) Spread Col­lar
• 1 But­ton Bar­rel (Round­ed) Cuffs

This is the one shirt every man should have in his clos­et.  Pin­points or twills are durable weaves that will drape you ele­gant­ly and not have any of the opaque­ness you’d find with a lighter, thin­ner weave (i.e. Broad­cloths, Poplins). Ensure a per­fect fit by select­ing a slim fit, i.e. more tapered through the arms and tor­so to achieve a more fit­ted look.  The Eng­lish Spread col­lar is per­fect for any occa­sion and looks equal­ly ele­gant with or with­out a tie.  This is a shirt you can wear 1–2x a week for years with prop­er care.  As with all of the shirts here, we rec­om­mend either dry clean­ing or machine wash­ing on cold and then air dry­ing. NEVER machine dry.  Dry­ers rob the shirts cot­ton of mois­ture which short­en their life.

White Twill Non Iron Shirt by Deo Ver­i­tas

Where to Buy

Off the Rack:

• Basic (< $100): Bono­bos — White Dai­ly Grind Wrin­kle Free ($98)
• Mid Lev­el (>$100): Brooks Broth­ers — Regent Roy­al White Oxford ($120)
• Pre­mi­um (>$150): Eton — White Sig­na­ture Twill ($245)

Custom (As Shown Above):

• Deo Ver­i­tas — White Twill Non Iron ($120)

The Formal, French Cuff Mens White Dress Shirt

Andes White Pin­point by Deo Ver­i­tas

Fabric / Attributes:

• Twill Weave
• Ital­ian Spread Col­lar
• French Cuffs
• French Plack­et (Fly Front / Hid­den Plack­et for a Tuxe­do Shirt As Shown Above)

Whether it’s a wed­ding, a funer­al, or a job inter­view — every man needs a for­mal, white, French cuff dress shirt.  French cuffs are dis­tin­guished by their clo­sure which requires them to be fold­ed once over with cuff links.  Addi­tion­al­ly, a for­mal white dress shirt should have a French plack­et which gives the front tor­so a much more stream­lined look.  As for the col­lar, we rec­om­mend a longer point length (i.e. our Ital­ian spread col­lar) since the points will tuck ele­gant­ly under­neath your blaz­er lapels — a men’s fash­ion neces­si­ty.  If you’re not wear­ing a full tux, a pair of black pants / slacks will pair per­fect­ly with this shirt.  Look for a slim fit to achieve a more con­toured / fit­ted look.

Andes White Pin­point by Deo Ver­i­tas

Where to Buy:

Off the Rack (Standard Sizing):

• Basic (< $100): Bono­bos — White Washed But­ton Down ($88)
• Mid Lev­el (>$100): Charles Tyr­witt — White Non Iron Twill ($110)
• Pre­mi­um (>$150): Turn­bull & Ass­er — Plain White Cot­ton w/ Clas­sic Spread Col­lar and Dou­ble Cuffs ($335)

Custom (As Shown Above):

•  Deo Ver­i­tas — Andes White Pin­point 100s ($130)

The Casual, Oxford Cotton Button Down Mens White Dress Shirt

Mil­ward White Oxford by Deo Ver­i­tas

Fabric / Attributes:

• Oxford Weave
• But­ton Down Col­lar
• 1 But­ton Bar­rel (Round­ed) Cuffs
• Front Plack­et
• Straight Cut Hem (Option­al)
• Pock­et (Option­al)

A favorite for cool, fall week­ends pop­u­lar­ized by Brooks Broth­ers, is the Oxford But­ton Down shirt.  As the sto­ry goes, John Brooks (the grand­son of the founder of Brooks Broth­ers), while on hol­i­day in Eng­land in the late 19th cen­tu­ry, noticed that polo play­ers had their col­lars fas­tened to their shirts with but­tons dur­ing match play. At this point, the prover­bial light went off and Brooks quick­ly took the idea back to the States with the inten­tion of bring­ing this nov­el idea to mar­ket. The but­ton down col­lar itself is dis­tin­guished by it’s lack of inter­lin­ing mate­r­i­al or col­lar stays giv­ing it the trade­mark but­ton down ‘roll’ that is not seen on any oth­er col­lar type.

Oxford cot­ton is notably one of the more heavy weaves you’ll find on a dress shirt.  It’s dis­tin­guished by a some­what grainy tex­ture that begins to soft­en after a few wash­es.  It’s rigid tex­ture and low thread count requires min­i­mal iron­ing, mak­ing it a per­fect casu­al piece of attire.  Pop­u­lar­ized by com­pa­nies such as UNTUCK­it, many men are opt­ing for a short­er, straight cut hem in order to wear this type of shirt untucked.  Addi­tion­al­ly, this shirt can option­al­ly be worn with or with­out a pock­et.  Addi­tion­al­ly, depend­ing on the occa­sion this is a type of white that looks great with short sleeves vs. long.

Mil­ward White Oxford by Deo Ver­i­tas paired with char­coal / black jeans

Where to Buy:

Off the Rack (Standard Sizing):

• Basic (< $100): Bono­bos — White Washed But­ton Down ($88)
• Mid Lev­el (>$100): Brooks Broth­ers White Oxford Sport Shirt ($140)
• Pre­mi­um (>$150): Turn­bull & Ass­er — White Roy­al But­ton Down Oxford ($335)

Custom (As Shown Above):

•  Deo Ver­i­tas: Mil­ward — White Oxford ($105)

The Summer / Beach Mens White Dress Shirt

White Linen / Cot­ton One Piece Col­lar Shirt by Deo Ver­i­tas

Fabric / Attributes:

• Cot­ton / Linen Weave
• One Piece Col­lar (aka Cal­i­for­nia or Coop­er Col­lar)
• Cock­tail Cuffs
• French Plack­et

A time­less clas­sic that has become a sar­to­r­i­al favorite. As we’ve writ­ten about pre­vi­ous­ly, the one piece col­lar itself is a sin­gle piece that extends through the front tor­so and dou­bles as a plack­et. This rein­forc­ing effect is that the col­lar stands on its own, with­out col­laps­ing under it’s own weight — as is com­mon when wear­ing a blaz­er sans tie. Some­times, hid­den but­tons are placed behind the col­lar points to help give the col­lar it’s dis­tinc­tive ‘roll’. No top but­ton and a curved top plack­et give it a unique­ly con­tem­po­rary casu­al look.

A mid 20th cen­tu­ry clas­sic, this col­lar was pop­u­lar­ized in the 40/50’s via men’s style icon Gary Coop­er. Con­se­quen­tial­ly, it’s some­time referred to as the Coop­er Col­lar. For it to look / func­tion as described, it requires a skilled pat­tern cut­ter and seam­stress, mak­ing it pri­mar­i­ly a cus­tom / bespoke item.  We have list­ed one off-the-rack shirt mak­er below (Kamaku­ra) which is skilled in the mak­ing of this type of shirt.

Linen is almost always syn­ony­mous with warmer, sum­mer attire as it breathes excep­tion­al­ly.  The draw­back is wrin­kling which give it a more dis­tressed, casu­al look that is per­fect for warmer cli­mates.  This is one shirt that would pair equal­ly well with a pair of styl­ish jeans or a pair of shorts and flip flops.

White Linen / Cot­ton One Piece Col­lar Shirt by Deo Ver­i­tas

Where to Buy:

Off the Rack (Standard Sizing):

• Mid Lev­el (>$100): Kamaku­ra White Linen Sci­olto ($105)

Custom (As Shown Above):

•  Deo Ver­i­tas — Lin­da Mean­der White Linen / Cot­ton ($145)

Interested in designing your own custom mens white dress shirt?

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Check out some of our other Popular Guides…

The Men’s White Dress Shirt — A Defin­i­tive Buy­ing Guide on our Favorites

The One Piece Col­lar — The Great­est Col­lar You’ve Nev­er Heard of

Untucked vs. Tucked In — A Guide to Dress Shirt Length

Mens Short Sleeve Dress Shirts: A Sum­mer Fash­ion Guide