The Proper Blog

If you’re really after the perfect fitting dress shirt, you’ll want to understand how the slope of your shoulders can affect the fit of your shirt.

While this may not be an issue for most men, it’s worth mentioning because it can make a dramatic difference for certain men.

To evaluate your shoulder slope, it’s important that you wear your dress shirt fully buttoned up and stand in your natural/relaxed position. Also, it can be hard to honestly evaluate your shoulder slope by simply looking in the mirror or having someone look at you.  Taking a photo and looking at the photo can sometimes be very helpful.

Sloping Shoulders

Sloping Shoulders are commonly found in men that lift-weights.  Larger trap and shoulder muscles will create a steeper angle from the neck to the end of the shoulder.

Sloping shoulders is not only a symptom of Men’s Fitness types.  Some men are simply shaped this way.

If you’re wearing a dress shirt, fully buttoned up, the poor-fit-symptom of sloping shoulders is the appearance of lines/wrinkles pulling from the top of the shoulders/back of the collar down towards the arm-pits of the shirt.

BTW – this fit problem can also be a symptom of the shirts chest being too tight, or sleeves being too narrow, so you may try relaxing those specs a bit too.

Square Shoulders

Square shoulders are the opposite.  The angle from the neck to the outer edge of the shoulder is closer to horizontal than average.

In our experience, square shoulders are usually found in skinnier guys.

If you’re wearing a dress shirt, fully buttoned up, the poor-fit symptom of square shoulders will be the appearance of lines/wrinkles pulling from the outside of the shoulders down towards the center of the shirt.

If you’re seeing this fit problem, you should also double check that the shirt yoke is not too narrow for your shoulders.

Normal Shoulders

There’s not a whole lot to say about normal shoulders.  Basically, our standard fit fits you just fine.

Your shoulder slope is average and you don’t see any of the poor-fit symptoms mentioned above .

This movie has style.

Call them what you want: sample sales – flash sales – private sales. We’re doing them.

Basically, the idea is:

• Every day, starting at midnight, we’ll put a new dress shirt design on sale.
• The design on sale will not be customizable, but the shirt can be ordered in ANY size, including custom sizes.
• Discounts will range from 25-50%.
• Each sale will last for just 24 hours or until we run out of the fabric used in that specific design.
• Our return policy still applies.  Perfect fit is guaranteed.  If the shirt doesn’t fit, alterations are complimentary.

Sample sale prices + custom fit?   Yeah, I know, we’re impressed with ourselves too.

Checkout today’s sample sale here.

Such a great quote…

And we’ve got to give credit to Mickey Drexler and J.Crew for all the great stuff they’ve been doing lately. (Found at The Choosy Beggar)

Ok, now Father’s day is literally right around the corner.

Our primary gift suggestion is a Hallmark card that plays “Hammer Time” when it is opened.

That commercial dad sure looks happy.

Our secondary gift suggestion is the Proper Cloth Custom Dress Shirt Gift Kit.

If your dad wears dress shirts this is a no-brainer. It’s basically a dress shirt in a tiny box.  Except, unlike normal dress shirts, this dress shirt is guaranteed to fit and be in the exact color dad likes.

Our custom dress shirt gift box includes:

(1) Tailors measuring tape

(5) Samples of popular fabrics

(1) Sweet looking black box

(1) Cute little red hand stamped note that you can write something on

(1) Beautiful red bow that says you care

We also accommodate special requests – like what you want us to write on the note or a specific color of fabrics or hand delivery by Brazilian super model or anything like that. Just let us know.

Stay Proper.

It’s officially summer time.

And for the fashion conscious (or maybe just lazy) man that inevitably means shoes without socks.  The problem is, whether you’re sporting leather boat shoes or canvas slip ons, shoes w/out socks can be a touch uncomfortable.

Which is where these “invisible socks” come in handy.

(via selectism)

Came across these cool t-shirts the other day.  I have to get myself one of these.

I’ve always been a big fan of typography and love seeing it used to make clean and simple shirt designs.  Messages like “& then I woke up”, “7-days a week” and “easier said than done” really resonate.

Ugmonk is a young company based in Vermont.  Show some support for this young designer/entrepreneur.

“He had a face that belonged in a depression era breadline”…

Awesome.

“Seek love foolishly my boy, even if it kills you.”

Found this video on United Style.

Epaulet is a men’s clothing store in Brooklyn run by the extremely friendly Michael and Adele.  Michael used to be the buyer at SAKS.  He also designs a lot of his own clothes.

Yeah, read that again.

Michael used to be the buyer for SAKS men’s department and he is waiting at Epaulet right now to answer your questions.

Michael really knows men’s clothes. Ask him about his raw denim jeans and he’ll break them down for you explaining the cut, the type of denim, where the denim is made, how it is finished, where the dye comes from, where the jeans are manufactured, who designed them, what the designer likes to do on the weekends, how his company was started, how the jeans will wear out, how much they will shrink and on and on.

Ask him about his Alden shoes and he’ll start explaining how the leather comes from this one part of a certain kind of cow and the process required to age and form the leather and how the company was started and what they’ve been doing the last few years and what they’re doing next, and what the factory smells like and how one shoemaker there is an 85 years old veteran that makes his own scotch and likes to go duck hunting on the weekends…

Ok, I made that last part up.

But, basically, Michael really, really knows what he’s talking about.

And he cares.

There’s not a lot to choose from there.  The store is pretty small.  But, this is a good thing.  You get the feeling that every item there was carefully selected.  You get the feeling that if you shop there, you’re buying quality products from authentic, perhaps relatively unknown, brands.

So, next time you’re in the market for a blazer, or a jacket, or some jeans, or some quality shoes, or pretty much anything, consider making the short trip to Brooklyn to visit Epaulet.  Or, of course you can also visit their online store.  It just won’t be as fun.

He went out.  He got two numbers in the same night.  He drank cocktails…

Consider this your advanced notice that Father’s day is coming up (June 20th this year).  Which means if you order pops a custom shirt in the next week or so, we’ll have it ready in plenty of time.

Otherwise, we suggest our custom dress shirt startup kit and gift pack.  Of course.

DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT

Stay Proper.