In American English, a dress shirt is a men's shirt with a collar, a full-length opening at the front from the collar to the hem, and full length sleeves with cuffs. The opening fastens closed along a placket using buttons or studs, and the cuffs close with buttons, cuff links or silk knots. Some very formal shirts have separable collars attached with studs. In British English, this garment is simply known as a shirt, while a dress shirt is specifically a smarter shirt of the fashion, worn with black tie or white tie. The majority of this article discusses dress shirts in the American English sense. Dress shirts are normally made from woven cloth, and can be worn with a jacket and tie (including suits and formal wear). Less-formal variations on the standard pattern are also common. An alternative term is button-front, button-up or in American English button-down shirt (which refers to a collar with buttons in British English). The analogous garment to a men's dress shirt for women is a blouse.

Components

A traditional tailored shirt has the following components:

• Collar: The flaps of the collar are known as points; the open space or gap between the points (when the shirt is fastened) is called the spread;
• Yoke: This is the most difficult part of the shirt to construct. This is the shaped section at the shoulders, which connects all the other parts of the shirt. A split yoke has two pieces sewn together to help shape it to the shoulders.
• Two sleeves;
• Two cuffs;
• Two front panels;
• Back;
• Second Back; and a
• Placket.

Collars

• Spread: a collar that measures from around 3½ to 6 inches between the collar points. The wider collars are often referred to as a Cutaway collars or Windsors after the Duke of Windsor. The spread is the most formal collar for the lounge suit.
• Point or Straight also known as the Small: a collar that appears narrow, with 2½ to 3¼ inches between the points of the collar.
• Tab: a point collar that has two loops of fabric extending from the middle of the collar, which meet behind the tie; It is designed to give the tie an arc effect. The tabs can be closed with a metal snap, button or stud.
• Eyelet: a collar which requires a barbell-style collar bar
• Club: a collar with rounded edges, very popular in the first few decades of the 20th century.
• Button-down: a collar, that buttons to the front of the shirt at its points. Introduced by Brooks Brothers in 1896, it was patterned after the shirts of polo players and was considered a sports shirt until the 1950s in America. It is still considered a more sporting style, and, particularly outside America, some people may still avoid wearing suits with this style of collar.
• Varsity: a type of spread collar in which the points curve outward from the placket of the shirt.
• Tony Collar: an extremely formal collar in which the entire collar covers the wearer's neck and also encloses the top part of the tie, usually the entire knot.
• Tall: this collar is bold enough for the dress down-down fashion. If you have a large neck, the tall collar helps to minimise the effect. It often fastens with two buttons.