The London Lounge

I've recently bought an evening -dress shirt with pleats. I've always previously had Marcella fronts but I felt like a change.
Here's my question. Should I fasten up the front with the buttons or use studs ? The shirt has provision for both ( if you remove the buttons there's a button hole next to where each button was. Since historically, studs were used to fasten up the front of the shirt because the Marcella front was too stiff to allow a button to be pushed through the stiff fabric, there seems no justification to use studs on what is essentially a soft fronted shirt. I fear using studs " just because there's a hole there" is like putting a cufflink through a single cuff, which to my mind is woefully ill-advised , to put it mildly.

Dear Charles,

sticking to old rules that nobody out there understands makes little sense to me . Today, we are wearing an evening dress shirt because we are in a festive mood, and studs definitely look better.

Cheers, David

I don't think anyone can top the above advice for clarity, content and brevity.

I would only add: don't knock single, linked cuffs. They are the original form. much sleeker and less cumbersome than double cuffs, especially on "formal / semi-formal" wear.

Thank you gentlemen. Studs it is. But which ones ? Decisions decisions.....

I remember seeing a film about a country house party (might have been The Shooting Party, an excellent film, and James Mason's last, I think) in which one of the guests becomes very distressed by the fact that he has brought the wrong dress studs. The ones he has are "too formal". I have largely given up wearing studs. A simple, small, high-quality button on a well-cut dress shirt is elegant and relaxed and perfectly suited to most of the black-tie events I attend. And if travelling it means I don't need to remember to take them, or bring them back!

Scot wrote:... I have largely given up wearing studs. A simple, small, high-quality button on a well-cut dress shirt is elegant and relaxed and perfectly suited to most of the black-tie events I attend. And if travelling it means I don't need to remember to take them, or bring them back!

That seems the way to go. Ede & Ravenscroft used to stock a good range of evening shirts with dark MOP buttons that were a sensible compromise - studs are just too fussy unless you are in white tie, in your grandfathers set-diamond studs, and about to receive your Nobel Prize for Sartorial Contribution from the King of Sweden.

Some of the most impressively elegant dinner jacket manifestations I've seen have been on top of a plain white shirt, with a well (hand) tied barathea bow.

I often take this route although it's less of a(n under-) statement beneath a DB DJ since less of the plain poplin is on show.

I have convinced myself however that I 'need' a SB version in a lighter weight mohair for warmer occasions - so this has been added to the pipeline. I think that with a modern cut SB DJ, studs would be well over the top, so I shall hunt down a lightweight pleated evening shirt - or just stick with plain white.

Although on occasion the act of affixing studs to my shirt can be an exercise in frustration, I find wearing a shirt with studs to be one of those simple pleasures that is worth the effort. It's different from the everyday and that is part of the appeal of wearing a dinner jacket in the first place.

davidhuh wrote: Today, we are wearing an evening dress shirt because we are in a festive mood, and studs definitely look better.

andy57 wrote: I find wearing a shirt with studs to be one of those simple pleasures that is worth the effort. It's different from the everyday and that is part of the appeal of wearing a dinner jacket in the first place.

I´m with David and Andy in this one. After all it´s the only time I get to use my studs and I´m not going to let it pass by. I have tried the plain white shirt with mother of pearl buttons occasionally with my DB dinner jacket but with the SBDJ and vest there seems to be that perfect touch of onyx missing there.