How to iron a dress shirt, you ask? Awww (sad face), you must miss the days when mom used to iron your dress shirts just because she loved you…

Well, stop kvetching, and count your blessings (at least you had a mom). Some of us weren’t so lucky. And by that, I mean, I had a mom, but she never ironed. I was def sporting wrinkles even before they were fashionable. So I understand your plight. Ironing dress shirts is hard. Especially, if your only iron tutorial was on the back of the iron box.

But boy do we have good news! We’ve found some great videos to show you the ironing ropes. Now all that’s left is deciding whether you prefer to learn from our sarcastic friends at Esquire, or our favorite housewives at Real Simple (aka do you want to be entertained or to actually learn how to iron a dress shirt?). Kinda like those “Choose Your Own Adventure Books,” now that we think about it.

Not up to the challenge? Lucky for you, there is always a lazy alternative (don’t worry—no judging here). The dry cleaner. Might not be quite as good as good mom, but who is, really?

Okay, when do you end up shopping? Middle of the day Wednesday? Nope, not if you’re employed. (And actually probably not if you’re unemployed - whose spending cash on clothes then, right?) If you’re independently wealthy or a trustafarian, maybe. But if you are, this post is not for you. Frankly, if you are, I hold some resentments toward you that may or may not be justified, nonetheless, they exist, and might alter my judgment as it relates to weekday shopping.)

But, back to the point. When do we shop? We shop on the freaking weekend. The weekend! This is playing, partying,working-out,project-finishing, oil-changing, long-riding, hangover-recovering, lounging, general debauchery, catching up, hiding-out, trekking, angle-working, girl-watching, bird-watching (maybe not), fishing, hunting, surfing, boarding, car-washing, rock-climbing, cow-tipping, snake-catching, river-rafting, bungee-jumping, go hard weekend!! Oh, did I mention the game? What game? Who cares what game, there’s a game. Right now it’s baseball, or Nascar, Wimbledon if you’re into tennis, or the Strongest Man competition, or maybe one of those eating contests, or, yes please, MMA reruns. But who really cares what the game is. There is a game. Or .... you could go shopping. See the point? There’s always something better to do.

What about a custom dress shirt? Talk about a time-muncher! Go to the tailor. Get groped and measured by said tailor, who is probably not Giselle Bundchen’s hotter older sister. Leave with nothing. Come back the next weekend (oh the pain,please make it stop) and pick up your shirt. Hand over some cash. Walk out with one custom dress shirt, and many lost, never-to-be-recovered, weekend hours. (Oh god, my arms are going numb.) Well, how about this: visit indiTailored Custom Dress Shirts, configure your shirt, answer some questions about your body (nothing private, that’s a different web site).Done. Shirt comes to your address a few weeks later. Good to go. Lost weekend hours? Zero. Zero. Zero. Want more? Cool, log in at indiTailored, modify your previous order (don’t go through the whole process again, completely skip the measurement questions), and bammo. Done again! More weekend hours saved. Okay, I’m done shilling. But for the sake of the weekend and all its beauty, think about what you can do to save it for yourself, you never know what you might be missing.

Okay, so where to start. I could go high school report outline here on you and start with roman number I point a, subpoint ii, etc. But I might lose some (all?) of you. I could just go off an a crazy person rant with no regard for clarity, elucidation or persuasiveness. But no, let’s just lay it out.

First, we feel stupid shopping. Yes, stupid. What do most men do for a living? Do they specialize in clothing, style, fashion, color schemes, fabric weight, accessorizing, flattering styles for body shapes? No and no and no. Going shopping means you are expected to know something about all of these things. We know very little about any of them, except perhaps the following, not necessarily in this order: (1)Brett Favre wears Wranglers; (2)MMA fighters wear crazy-looking, pattern-covered Afflication T-shirts; (3)Baggy is a safer choice if all else fails.

Okay, fish out of water, right? So there we are surrounded by thousands of clothing options and clothing experts. Ah, the experts. The sales people. They too, contribute to making men feel like idiots when clothes shopping. It’s not necessarily their fault, though it can be. You have three types here, at least in my narrow-blog view: (1)Attractive, (maybe really, really,really hot attractive), maybe too-much makeup sales girl; (2)Flamingly gay and intimidating because he dresses so well and makes you look like a sloppy schlub, sales guy; (2) Straight, metrosexual guy who’s probably making it with the attractive sales girl, who makes you uncomfortable because you don’t like talking about clothes with straight dudes, sales guy. (Oh that reminds me, men generally never, ever talk about clothes with other men. There are exceptions, in this order: (1)Uniforms (military, sports); (2)Shoes (boots, sports [basketball, football, running, golf]);(3)Hats (baseball, beanie, profane); (4)T-shirts (see hats)); Ever go into an arena where you know nothing, surrounded by people who know more than you and then you’re asked “What can I help you with?” (Don’t answer college, or wedding planning, or your back-packing trip to Hungary) Not fun. You feel stupid. Here’s how it goes:

Man: “Uh, I was looking for dress shirt.”
Sales Person: “Okay, what style”
Man: Staring blankly at the racks and racks of clothes, feeling the sweat glands open up, preparing to unload, speech complicated by a large cotton-gum ball in mouth area, looking like a bull-moose carefully navigating its way out of a cat show, “Maybe something like this” pointing to the nearest thing that looks reasonable, just to give an answer and the end gut-wrenching awkwardness of the moment.
Sales Person: “Great. Do you know your dress shirt size”
Man: “Uh, I think a medium?”
Sales Person: (thinking that you are probably mentally disabled or under the influence, but hoping maybe you have lots of money, will explain dress shirt sizing [neck and sleeve] and if you’re lucky, gently guide you into a reasonable purchase that won’t embarrass you later in life (like the next day).

To be continued…

Cotton.  It’s the fabric of our lives.  Right? 

But type “men’s cotton dress shirts” into Google (the search engine of our lives) and you’ll get everything from Gap to Kohl’s to Men’s Wearhouse.  Where does a guy begin to define his personal style with a classic shirt staple like cotton?  Well, we stress three key areas to focus on: the best fabric, the best fit, and, of course, the ease of buying experience….Yep.  You guessed it.  indiTailored custom dress shirts has got all of your bases covered.

Our superior twill, dobby, textured, pinpoint and herringbone cotton shirts are all hand selected by our custom shirt designers for their outstanding performance in comfort and quality.  On top of it all, being 100% cotton makes our dress shirts machine-washable,  meaning that they are not only perfectly tailored to your body, but are also durable enough to withstand trip after trip to the hamper, wash, and back again. 

Whether you’re retiring an old cotton dress shirt model that has worn and torn its way through the last ten years or your most recent cotton dress shirt purchase is just not cutting it in terms of style, keep reading. Your cotton dress shirt from indiTailored is sure to outshine all the other cotton dress shirts that came before it.

At indi, you don’t have to wade through piles and piles of merchandise before you find something that fits, or something you like, or something your girlfriend won’t “mistakenly” throw out.  Just enter your measurements along with your preferences for style and fit, and then let us take care of the rest!  Finding a great shirt at indiTailored is so easy.  It’s almost too easy…  See for yourself!

Well, you knew this was coming. No more sleeveless tees in the office. Same for the old reliable college sweatshirt with the weird bleach spots near the neck. Fleece pullover? Nope. (Fleece pullover, really?) Vest?  Well, no one wears vests at work, forget that one. Anyway, in the well-entrenched tradition of media overreacting to a single story to draw wildly unjustified conclusions, we say here right now, that there is a vast flood of dress code enforcement under way in this great country of ours. You will soon be forced to have a closet stocked up with a least two weeks’ worth of clean, crisp, well-fitted dress shirts, or risk the wrath of the ever-vigilant Eye in the Sky. No, it’s true. In a school district in Texas (the Lone-Star State of all places):

“A letter was sent out enforcing the dress code, which became effective immediately a few weeks ago. All Ysleta district teachers and staff are required to dress professionally.”
Dress Shirts Dress Code

So, unless you choose a suicidal frontal assault against the unyielding power of Big Brother, we would recommend that you turn this oncoming crackdown into something positive. In other words, make it look goodI Check out indi Tailored’s new gallery for some ideas. Go casual, luxury, black, white, pastel, whatever. It’s all there. Buttondown collars and barrel cuffs. French cuffs and spread collars. White French cuffs and white spread collars. Executive collars and mitered cuffs. One, two, three button collars. Buttondown collars, not buttondown collars. Solids, checks (large and small), stripes. My brain is starting to hurt! It’s endless I tell you, endless!  You can run circles around The Man with your creativity and inventiveness. You will foil Big Brother’s attempts to control you by flexing your dress shirt muscles, until perhaps, one day, he gives up, and you can pull out that old sweatshirt again. (Wow, that was liberating.) Now go out and do what you have to do! Word.