Bespoke Shirts
The Striped Shirt.
Pattern without risk — the stripe that works with almost every suit and adds character without complication.
The striped dress shirt occupies a specific and useful place in the professional wardrobe. It has the versatility of a solid shirt — it works with suits in every major colour, with the widest range of ties, in every professional context — while adding the visual interest that a plain shirt lacks. A Bengal stripe in blue and white, or a fine bar stripe in burgundy on white, is not a safe compromise. It is a considered choice that, made correctly, is among the most consistently satisfying professional shirts a man can own. At The Black Lapel, striped shirts are made in the same cloths as our plain shirts — Thomas Mason poplin and twill — with a stripe width and colour selected at the consultation to work with the specific suits and ties the client wears.
The stripe types — Bengal, bar stripe, hairline and awning
Shirt stripes vary primarily in width and the ratio of colour to white. Understanding the character of each is the first step in choosing which stripe to commission.
The Bengal stripe — equal-width stripes of colour and white, typically 6–8 mm wide — is the most classic and the most immediately recognisable shirt stripe. It has a bold, energetic character that reads as confident and professional. Blue and white is the most classic combination; pink and white has a slightly warmer and more relaxed character; burgundy and white is richer and more assertive.
The bar stripe — a narrower stripe of colour on a white ground, typically 2–4 mm wide with wider white spacing — is more contained. A single navy or burgundy bar stripe on white reads as barely a pattern at any distance — it adds texture and subtle colour rather than overt pattern. This makes it the most versatile stripe: appropriate even in the most conservative professional environments.
The hairline stripe is the most subtle of all — a very fine single thread of colour woven into the plain ground at regular intervals. At a distance, a hairline-striped shirt reads as a plain shirt with a slight colour cast. Only on closer inspection does the stripe become visible. It is the most contained stripe and the most universally appropriate.
Stripes with suits — what works and why
A striped shirt works with a plain suit and a plain tie, with a plain suit and a patterned tie, and with a very subtly patterned suit (a fine herringbone or birdseye) and a plain tie. The only pairing to avoid is a bold striped shirt with a boldly patterned suit — two strong patterns in close proximity create visual conflict that reduces the overall impact of both.
With a charcoal or navy suit — the foundation suits in any professional wardrobe — a blue Bengal stripe shirt and a plain tie is among the most correct and complete professional looks available. The stripe adds interest to the standard suit-and-shirt combination without moving it away from professional convention. With a tie, the most natural pairings are plain ties in complementary colours — a plain navy tie with a blue and white stripe, a plain burgundy tie with a pink stripe, a plain mid-grey tie with any of the blue stripes.
Selecting the stripe at consultation — what we consider
At The Black Lapel, we show clients the full range of striped shirting cloths from Thomas Mason and guide the selection based on what they already own. The relevant questions are: What are the primary suit colours in the wardrobe? What ties are worn most frequently? Is the working environment more or less conservative? What is the existing shirting wardrobe — are there already stripes, or is this the first?
The most common first commission for a striped shirt is a blue Bengal stripe — it works with almost every suit, reads as professional but personal, and is the most universally tested stripe in professional dress. The second commission is often a bar stripe in a different colour — burgundy or navy — that expands the range of the shirt wardrobe into a slightly more contained pattern. From there, the stripe vocabulary can be extended in any direction the client's wardrobe and preference supports.
Commission your shirts.
Visit us at 4 Sardar Patel Road, Adyar, Chennai — Mon–Sat, 11am–9pm. First consultation free.