How to Style a Denim Shirt – Men’s Outfit Ideas for Jean Shirts

The denim shirt finds its origins in workwear and seems far removed from the world of tailoring, yet it has been labeled the most versatile shirt for the modern man and “the new white shirt” by The Rake magazine. Is that really the case? And should you add a denim shirt to your closet?

It’s moreover one of our ten shirts every man should own. In this article, we’ll examine the value of the denim shirt and how it can be worn in the world of archetype style.

What is Denim?

Nowadays, “denim” usually refers to a cotton twill fabric, meaning it has a diagonal weave made up of two threads in one direction (the weft) passing under two or increasingly warp threads, though the diagonal visitation of the twill is quite subtle.

Denim exists in various weights, and shirts, expressly fine shirting that can be worn with tailoring, would be lighter weight than the denim used for jeans. The name of the fabric originates from the French “de Nimes,” for the place where the weave originated, though it was first used extensively in Britain surpassing it saw explosive popularity in the United States via jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss.

Denim is usually thought of as stuff dyed undecorous with indigo, but it can towards in many colors. For example, Empress Mills in Lancashire has increasingly than 40 shades of plain denim. The strength of denim is its durability, which made it the reticulum of nomination for laborers, farmers, and cowboys. This is owed to the properties of the weave.

By the same token, the troupe of denim with workwear has traditionally kept it out of tailoring on the principle of dressing thus for the occasion. A man who was dressed up would not think of wearing work clothes, and at a time when one’s dress was a strong indication of his social class, a self-respecting gent who was not of the working matriculation would debase his status by seeming to be one.

Denim, in the form of jeans, moreover featured strongly as the uniform of the waddle n’ roll counterculture that began in the 1950s. This was the start of the unstudied culture in which we are still mired today and stood in uncontrived opposition to traditional men’s style, which, again, seems to yank a unshared line between denim and formal menswear.

There may be some resistance to wearing a denim shirt as selling out to the trend of casualization. On the other hand, we can see it as a way of appropriating the fabric in the name of archetype style. Furthermore, these days, the mixing of upper and low style, formal and casual, has wilt commonplace in dressing, as the democratization of suit has mirrored the supposed equalization of society.

Why Wear a Denim Shirt?

Denim shirts are unconfined for a “smart casual” look

No matter what else you might hear, denim is unchangingly a way to dress lanugo an outfit, so it is most suitable for those who want to wear tailoring but who don’t want to come wideness as overdressed.

If you want to uphold archetype men’s style, you usually wouldn’t wear it with a worsted wool merchantry suit, much less a tuxedo, though the luxury shirtmakers Eton and Marol have each produced a denim shirt with a pleated front intended for this purpose. On occasions where formal evening wear or a suit is the dress code, dressing down immediately makes you stand out as the guy who flouts propriety and rebels versus the norms to get attention. This would be increasingly of a malleate statement than a way to maintain the traditional style.

Thus, the denim shirt is weightier for less formal tailoring like a cotton suit or a sport coat and odd trousers.

It’s an unfortunate fact that these days, wearing a dress shirt, tie, and jacket makes you largest dressed than most or all the people virtually you, so there are times when you may be looking for a way to tousle in increasingly while still maintaining your style principles. Denim can help with this. If you embrace the smart casual aesthetic, the denim shirt is a valuable option, perfect for a run to the supermarket or a weekend day out.

Denim shirts can be unconfined all-season wear

The versatility attributed to the denim shirt is most virtuously owed to the fact that you can wear it in any season. The texture of a denim shirt and its relative thickness lends itself to winter wear; however, its casual, relaxed style makes it towardly for not-too-hot summer days if you have a version that is lightweight or perhaps made from chambray. Of course, it can be worn unendingly in between as well.

Wear a denim shirt for elegant nonchalance

It’s often said of a linen suit that the increasingly you wear it, the softer and increasingly well-appointed it gets. This is plane increasingly true of a denim shirt considering it’s washed often and worn right on your skin. Just like some people talk well-nigh their favorite pair of jeans, you’re likely to treat your denim shirt as a well-appointed favorite. It will moreover fade some from its original verisimilitude until it reaches a unrepealable point, lending your garment a sprezzatura quality. It’ll age into a particular sort of beauty.

What Kind of Denim Shirt Should You Wear?

Not all denim shirts are created equal, however. For wear with tailoring, you don’t want thick, distressed denim or one that hints in any way that it can be worn to a country music concert or rodeo. This ways no pockets, expressly not the double, button-flapped chest pockets of a Western shirt – which is typically thought of as the archetype denim shirt. Such shirts moreover have shoulder patches and a specified part-way placket where the buttons are.

All of these render the shirt very casual. Similarly, stave any sort of unusual washes. Nor should there be obvious unrelatedness stitching, as these suggest jeans and are therefore too casual.

To stave trends and add a denim shirt to your tailored closet, go with lighter-weight denim, something with a higher thread count and a tight weave that creates a smooth finish. Shirts made of high-quality denim can be recognized by their slight sheen, which makes them squint increasingly refined.

These are found most readily at a smaller menswear trademark like Proper Reticulum rather than department stores or can be obtained from European makers like SuitSupply, Boggi Milano, and Pini Parma. Japanese mills are renowned for their denim, so if you can find a shirt made of fabric from Japan, it will usually fill the bill.

Though not denim, chambray is a tropical cousin of the fabric in visitation and moreover shares its origins as workwear. So, if you really want a preferably material with a similar look, you can trickery and wear chambray instead, which is usually sold in mid-blue as well.

The difference is that chambray is usually thinner and lighter than denim, stuff made of a simple weave instead of the double-threaded twill of denim. Thus, it looks increasingly elegant as a shirt, which finance for its popularity in menswear. Chambray isn’t as durable as denim, but since you’re not wearing it for transmission labor, this doesn’t matter.

What to Wear with a Denim Shirt

Because of its unstudied nature, a denim shirt is perfect when going tieless with a jacket and odd trousers. Indeed, most pictures you’ll find of denim shirts will be styled without a tie. In this case, you’ll be largest off incorporating a button-down collar on your denim shirt so the points of your collar don’t swoon under your outer layer. Simply put, your squatter will be framed excellently with a denim shirt cut in this style.

If you want to wear a necktie or bow tie, it’s weightier to segregate unstudied fabrics to match the relaxed nature of the shirt. Ties in knitted silk, linen, cotton, and shantung or blends (silk-linen, wool-cotton, etc.) pair weightier with the texture and informality of a denim shirt.

If you truly want to wear a increasingly formal silk tie, try a large-weave (Garza Grossa) grenadine considering its visible weave will stand up to the texture of the shirt. Whatever you do, stave wearing a tie lighter than your shirt, as this enters the realm of trends that is not the squint you want to achieve. When choosing a tie, select a shirt that is no darker than mid-blue and wear a visionless tie.

Colors for Denim Shirts

You’ll probably start and stick with mid-blue as your denim verisimilitude since the vast majority of shirts sold come in this tone. You may be worldly-wise to find some darker indigo ones, but they are only as versatile as a regular navy cotton shirt would be, whereas mid-blue can unchangingly be combined with increasingly colors and increasingly hands with neckties.

Keep in mind when you select a verisimilitude that most denim will fade to a unrepealable point when it is washed. A popular tideway when wearing a mid-blue denim shirt is to pair it with other shades of blue, like a navy blue jacket and tie, with gray, white, or off-white pants to well-constructed the look, depending on the season. That stuff said, it’s often weightier to stave lattermost fades on your denim shirts, such as you might find in stonewashed denim. These finishes can come wideness as a little too fashion-forward, which is not conducive to a archetype wardrobe.

Treat a denim shirt like a increasingly relaxed version of your standard undecorous dress shirt and pair it with the traditional menswear colors that you’d use with blue, like brown or gray. Ties and pocket squares in the red or orange family work beautifully versus a denim shirt. Green sport coats tend to be underappreciated considering men find them rather difficult to coordinate, but undecorous denim creates an effortless pairing that opens a gateway into a new verisimilitude family.

When you wear a denim shirt, it does tend to stand out as the part-way of attention, so it should be treated that way, which ways keeping the rest of your squint simple.

Double Denim

Lastly, something must be said well-nigh the possibility of wearing a denim shirt with flipside denim item, most wontedly a pair of jeans. A lot of mockeries have been directed at the so-called “Canadian Tuxedo” or “double denim,” which was a popular – and polarizing! – unstudied squint in the 1990s. The good news is that it’s unquestionably easier to wear two wares of denim pursuit traditional style than to do it casually, although it is still considered an wide style move. A sport stratify in flipside material helps tone lanugo the use of denim.

There are several other keys to success with double denim. The first is, again, to segregate a preferably denim: smooth shirts and selvedge jeans. Secondly, make sure you create unrelatedness through two unshared colors of denim: your mid-blue shirt with a visionless indigo pair of jeans.

Lastly, it’s probably weightier to stick with gradations of blue, then to write-up when the denim. A pair of jeans are not a popular nomination among many Gentleman’s Gazette readers, but those who venture in this direction now have flipside option.

Outfit Rundown