When it comes to picking out your corporate apparel, you may soon realize that there are various styles and fabrics to choose from. Some of the fabrics you’ve may recognize, while others just seem so foreign. In today’s blog, we will be focusing on the different types of dress shirt fabrics to help you understand what would be a better fit for you and your employees when deciding which would be appropriate for work. Below are some of the more well-known dress shirt fabrics, along with some of our customer favorites.
Poplin Dress Shirts
Dress shirts made of poplin fabrics bears a smoother texture. It is a strong fabric in a plain weave of any fiber or blend with no ribbing. Poplin dress shirts are easy to iron and do not wrinkle easily. They are soft and comfortable. And often used in more casual shirts. Colors find themselves easily at home here, and takes sports patterns especially well.
Popular Poplin Shirts (from left to right):
- Van Heusen V0114 – Ladies Long Sleeve Silky Poplin
- Harriton M510 – Essential Poplin
- Port Authority S632 – Long Sleeve Value Poplin Shirt
- River’s End 550 – Men’s Solid Poplin Long Sleeve Shirt (not pictured)
Twill Dress Shirts
Twill is a more beautiful fabric – it is detailed, elaborate, and comes in a variety of patterns and styles. Twill dress shirts are very durable fabrics that have a softer hand feel than poplin shirts and a bit more sheen. Although they are beautiful, twill fabrics won’t give you that same crisp look as other fabrics. Also, it can sometimes be hard to removes stains from twill dress shirts – so avoid if you’re someone who is a messy eater.
Popular Twill Shirts (from left to right):
- Van Heusen 13V0521 – Long Sleeve Baby Twill Shirt
- Devon and Jones D590 – Men’s Premium Twill
- Harriton M500 – Twill Shirt with Stain Release
- FeatherLite 5283 – Ladies Long Sleeve Stain Resistant Tapered Twill Shirt (not pictured)
Oxford Dress Shirts
The traditional oxford is a type of basket weave where one yarn may cross multiple yarns. The threads are usually of a single color crossed with a white to give oxford its unique, checkerboard appearance. Originally for sportswear, the oxford dress shirts are seen as the least dressy compared to all other dress shirt fabrics. Other than that, it is still a versatile fabric that can be worn casually or professionally depending on the thread count and finish. It can also look great even if it just came straight out of the dryer.
Popular Oxford Shirts (from left to right):
- Port Authority S659 – Short Sleeve SuperPro Oxford Shirt
- Also available in long sleeve
- Edwards Garment 1027 – Men’s Short Sleeve Oxford Shirt
- Red House RH25 – Non-Iron Pinpoint Oxford
- Van Heusen 58800 – Ladies Classic Long Sleeve Oxford (not pictured)
Herringbone Dress Shirts
Herringbone dress shirts are the most popular and are more textured fabric for corporate apparel and formal events.. Herringbone weaves is a type of twill, and has a distinctive “V” shaped pattern, named after the herringbone fish. Herringbone weaves tend to be slightly heavier in weight and are more often found in seasonal shirting fabrics for cold weather.
Popular Herringbone Dress Shirts (from left to right):
- Red House RH38 – Herringbone Non-Iron Button Down Shirt
- River’s End 612 – Ladies Herringbone Long Sleeve Shirt
- (not pictured) Tri-Mountain Gold 983 – Brea (Women) or
- (not pictured) Tri Mountin Gold 985 – Bridgeway (Men)
There you have it, the different types of dress shirt fabrics you’ll see while shopping for corporate apparel. Each fabric is different and has various properties such as being wrinkle free, soft to the touch, non-iron, and much more. Also, all our dress shirts featured in this blog (and all other apparel) can be embroidered at NYFifth, as we also specialize in custom embroidery and screen printing! Adding your logo to these dress shirts will make your brand stand out, as well as unify your company.
For inquires, call us at (877) 695-9722 and a customer representative will gladly assist you. Or you can email your inquiry or questions to [email protected].