Well Suited     The exquisite Brooks Brothers full-dress shirt has a perfectly sized bosom and a side vent that allows wearers to insert studs without creasing the stiff bib.   Speaking of stiff, only the bib and cuffs should be heavily starched.  The rest of the tunic should be starched lightly or not at all.

Well Suited     Gentlemen used to store their detachable collars in leather collar boxes.  Vintage boxes are frequently available for sale on eBay.   Unless you are tremendously dextrous or have the services of a personal valet, it is much easier to attach the back of the collar to the shirt before putting on the shirt.

Full-Dress Shirt

Next to the tailcoat, the full-dress shirt is arguably the most important component in creating White Tie's regal bearing. Discovering the exquisite details of this aristocratic garment transports a man back to a romantic era of unsurpassed refinement - and easily instils dismay at the proletarian substitute so ubiquitous at today's formal functions.

• Front

The classic full-dress shirt commands a military-like formality with a stiff and simple bosom made from plain linen, plain cotton or piqué (marcella in the UK).  This bib-shaped double layer of fabric is heavily starched which can cause the shirtfront to billow out like a sail when the wearer sits down and the excess material has nowhere else to go.  In order to avoid this conundrum, the properly tailored bosom is designed to end just above the trouser waist and just inside the suspenders. 

The shirt traditionally takes one or two (visible) studs depending on the wearer’s height or his preference.  It is also constructed to take a detachable collar.

• Collar

The collar of the full-dress formal shirt is distinguished not just by its folded wings but also by its height.  Originally, these detachable wing collars stood nearly as high as the wearer's jaw line and even today they should extend at least three quarters of an inch above the coat collar.  Combined with the heavily starched fabric and the broad wings that helped keep the bow tie perfectly in place, the resulting effect “framed all men’s faces in regal splendor” to quote Alan Flusser.  While such collars are difficult to find today they remain the epitome of formality. 

A truly classic collar will also be endowed with substantially broad wings known as “bold” wings in thirties haberdasher parlance.

Detachable collars are fastened to a tunic shirt with a shorter stud at the back of the collar and a longer one in front due to the overlap of the collar.  Because of the shirt design, only the front stud touches the neck.  Therefore, the back of this stud should be of bone or mother-of-pearl as metal may leave a mark on the skin.

• Cuffs

This most formal style of shirt takes stiff barrel cuffs (single cuffs in UK) as they, like the collar's height, were intended to show more than the softer French-style double cuffs.  Although they are not folded back, these cuffs are still intended to be fastened with links instead of buttons.  They are made of plain linen or cotton or they can be in piqué to match the shirt’s bosom.

• Other Details

It is a little known fact today that when a bow tie is worn with a wing collar shirt its band should never be seen above the jacket’s collar.  Consequently, a finely tailored formal shirt will have a loop stitched immediately below the collar for the specific purpose of keeping the bow tie’s band - and the backless waistcoat’s neck strap - discreetly tucked away under the jacket.  Less diligent manufacturers will omit the loop to save costs but this can be easily remedied by a trip to the tailor.

Quality formal shirts will also feature a tab that attaches to the inside of the trouser waistband in order to keep the shirt from riding up over the course of an evening.  Like all working details of a formal ensemble this tab is hidden – in this case by the waistcoat.

• Attached Wing-Collar Shirt

Unfortunately, the practice of wearing wing-collared shirts declined dramatically after the introduction of the formal turndown shirt for dinner jackets in the 1930s.  The tradition all but disappeared after World War II when the tuxedo replaced the tailcoat as the most formal type of attire that most men would ever wear. 

In the 1960s manufacturers began attaching the wing collar to the shirt in order to compete with the convenience and comfort of the turndown style.  This new style took off in the seventies and eighties and is now the norm for wing collars.  Consequently, men who are unwilling to seek out a conventional detachable collar shirt should at least look for a contemporary collar that resembles the classic archetype as much as possible.  In other words, it should be taller than the one and a half inches that is typical for regular shirt collars, it should feature pronounced wings instead of the paltry tabs that are so common now and it should have a fused construction so that it remains as stiff possible during wearing.

All other details are the same as the classic shirt including the minimal decoration of the bosom.  Pleated fronts are strictly for semi-formal dress.