Warm-weather and casual shirts

What makes a shirt casual

Not the cloth, mostly. A casual shirt is defined by its collar, its cuff and how much room it is cut with — the same poplin can be made formal or relaxed depending on those three decisions.

• Camp or one-piece collar — lies flat, never takes a tie, unmistakably relaxed
• Button-down — a soft roll; the most versatile casual collar
• Short sleeve, cut to the arm — the detail that separates made from bought
• Straight hem — for wearing untucked, and it needs to be cut shorter to work
• Chest pocket, or not — a real decision, not a default

An untucked shirt is its own cut rather than a tucked shirt worn out. The hem has to finish around mid-fly and the body has to be taken in, or it reads as a shirt that escaped. Collar shapes in full are incollars and cuffs.

Cloth, for thirty-five degrees

The same principle as suiting: the weave decides more than the fibre. An open weave in a lighter cotton moves air; a dense smooth poplin looks crisper and sits hotter.

• Linen — coolest, creases immediately, and is meant to
• Linen-cotton — most of the coolness, far less of the creasing
• Oxford — textured, forgiving, excellent untucked
• Voile and open-weave cottons — light enough to matter outdoors
• Seersucker — puckered so it holds off the skin; cooler than it looks

The full argument about weave and climate is onlinen and warm-weather cloth.

The air-conditioning problem

Most days here involve both thirty-five degrees outside and a room cooled to twenty-two, often within a few minutes of each other. A shirt cut only for the heat is thin and clingy indoors; one cut for the office is unbearable on the walk to it.

The workable answer is a cloth with some body and a cut with a little more room through the body than a business shirt — enough that the fabric is not against your skin everywhere at once. That small amount of extra room is a deliberate measurement rather than a looser size, which is the difference between made and bought.

What we will say before you order

• When a cloth will crease more than you are expecting
• When a collar suits the shirt but not the way you will wear it
• Whether a temple visit is in your plans, because that decides sleeve length
• Whether your dates allow it, before anything is cut

The appointments happen wherever you are — seewhere we come to you — and the process is in how a fitting works. What goes under a suit instead is onbusiness and formal shirts.

Questions we are actually asked

What is appropriate casual attire to wear in Thailand?

For Bangkok, a collared shirt covers nearly everything short of black tie, and the practical constraints are heat and shoulders. Offices and better restaurants expect a collar; temples and palaces require covered shoulders and knees and will turn you away without them, which is worth planning a shirt around if a temple visit is on the itinerary. Beyond that the city is relaxed, and a well-cut short-sleeved shirt is not underdressed here the way it would read in London.

Are there specific colors to avoid in Thailand?

Black is the one worth knowing about, because it is strongly associated with mourning and funerals — so an all-black outfit reads differently here than it might at home, particularly for a celebration. Beyond that there are colour traditions tied to days of the week and to the monarchy that are genuinely observed, and we are tailors rather than a cultural guide: if you are dressing for a specific Thai occasion, ask your host what is expected and we will cut to it.

What is the 3-3-3 rule for clothes?

It is a packing and capsule-wardrobe idea — three tops, three bottoms, three pairs of shoes, worn in combination for a trip. It is a useful discipline and it only works if the pieces genuinely go together, which is where made-to-order helps: three shirts cut to the same fit in colours chosen against the same two pairs of trousers will actually combine, where three bought separately usually will not quite.

Can a short-sleeved shirt be properly tailored?

Yes, and it is more obviously different from a ready-made one than a long-sleeved shirt is. The sleeve opening is the giveaway: off the rack it is cut generously and flaps around the bicep, while a made sleeve is cut to your arm so it sits cleanly without gripping. The body is also cut with less excess, because there is no jacket over it to hide a billowing shirt.

How many casual shirts should I order at once?

Enough that the pattern work pays for itself, which usually means three or more. The first shirt of any order carries the measuring and the pattern; the rest are cloth and making. The Boss Tailor cuts tailored shirts at your hotel, office or home anywhere in Bangkok, and because the pattern is kept you can add to the order later from abroad without being measured again.