What is it that make a dress shirt "nice"??

I've been heavily stocking up on dress shirts lately and i found myself wondering what exactly it is that makes a dress shirt "good". I've got shirts from lots of manufaterers in lots of different materials. I've found good fits from companies as vastly different as Brooks Brothers slim-fit, RLPL, RL Rugby, Brioni, Eton, Michael Bastian, Paul Smith. I've also found some great fits from H&M, J. Crew, Morona (the Target Brand) and Hugo Boss. There are a few obvious differences such as perceived material quality (the Eton is as soft as a baby's butt). I guess the question i've arrived at that i thought i'd throw out to discuss is:

Besides fit and material quality, what seperates a $30 shirt from a $300 shirt?

Please note: the purpose of the this post isn't to ***** about shirt prices or argue that a $30 shirt is just as good as a $300 shirt. As i mentioned, i have both and will continue to buy both. Justtrying to further my education and spark some conversation.

thanks!

The quality of the stitching, single needle stitching, pattern matching on certain areas unless there is shirring, quality of the buttons/sewing of the buttons, type of fusible used in the collar or sewing of interfacing, butterfly or reinforced gusset, certain parts attached by hand (this is not that important to me). Of course there is a law of diminishing returns, to some people the difference in quality between a $30 shirt and $300 shirt isn't 10X. I try to stay somewhere closer to the middle.

Material, fit, and construction.

Really good fabric to construct a shirt will usually cost around $30-$80, sometimes more.

Creating fine fitting patterns and constructing a shirt beautifully takes time, and time means money.

to start, the buttons on an expensive shirt will cost you more then what a merona shirt costs.

-Higher Material costs

The person working on an Italian made shirt is earning a higher wage then the one from whatever the country is now offering the cheapest in hourly wages. More complicated processes are often involved in expensive shirts, such as how they are assembled and how they're designed.

-Higher costs associated with skilled labor wages

Marketing, professional models working for Ralph Lauren are certainly earning a higher wage then those working for Kohls.

-Higher costs associated with marketing

The store front, Obviously the store fronts of high end companies such as Niemans, RL, Bergdorf, ect are more expensive and their staff of professional sales people which earn higher wages then those working the register at kohls.

-Higher costs associated with Overhead.

Among other things i'm certain that i'm forgetting there is alot of costs from store front to manufacturer which cause the cost of that Purple Label shirt to be in the $500 range, and the Merona one to be in the $30 one.

I buy high end for a few reasons, first I think they generally pick better patterns and put in features that i want more often then features that i dont. I enjoy paying for something that provides someone a living wage, and in my experience the quality has been significantly better.

Chicks dig it.

Twotone

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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The person working on an Italian made shirt is earning a higher wage then the one from whatever the country is now offering the cheapest in hourly wages. More complicated processes are often involved in expensive shirts, such as how they are assembled and how they're designed.

-Higher costs associated with skilled labor wages


to that regard, I just came across this "fact" from wikipedia regarding Prada, in which it states "Prada manufactures its wares in Italy, apparently keeping labor costs down by using Chinese laborers at the plants." with references, though not working (so can't be verified ).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prada
so I can't but to start wondering if this practice is true or not, if it is true, how widely has this practice been implemented in the industry, and what are we really paying for. I can't shake it off of my mind, that the tag says "made in italy --- by chinese workers (in small print)".

Another trick they use is to start the shirt in china/cambodia/etc then ship it over and "finish" it in Italy or wherever. They can then legally put on the "made in Italy" tag while simultaneously cheapening it!

Pay attention to the shirt, not the tag

so to add to the OP, I'd like to request an illustrated tutorial detailing the finer things in a "nice" dress shirt, for educational purpose (mainly myself).

Originally Posted by superfans124

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to that regard, I just came across this "fact" from wikipedia regarding Prada, in which it states "Prada manufactures its wares in Italy, apparently keeping labor costs down by using Chinese laborers at the plants." with references, though not working (so can't be verified ).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prada
so I can't but to start wondering if this practice is true or not, if it is true, how widely has this practice been implemented in the industry, and what are we really paying for. I can't shake it off of my mind, that the tag says "made in italy --- by chinese workers (in small print)".

I can't speak for Prada but out sourcing to subs in pretty common. The lowest bidder wins. That favours sweat shops hiring illegals.

Out sourcing has always existed. The local small tailor shops takes measurements etc and sends out cut cloth to subs that do most of the basic work. It then gets back to him for the finer finish work. In his case he has a bunch of house wives around the town that do certain types of work. No way he could handle all the work himself. No way he could compete on price if all the benches in his back room were still full of tailors.

Ignore the price as a determinent of quality and try to see the differences when the shirt is worn.

And despite popular belief, softer fabrics are not always better. That's why I don't wear jersey cotton suits.

Not having to dry clean it and it still looking just a fresh and fitting the same as I bought it 2 years ago.

Originally Posted by superfans124

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so to add to the OP, I'd like to request an illustrated tutorial detailing the finer things in a "nice" dress shirt, for educational purpose (mainly myself).

+1

Originally Posted by superfans124

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I can't shake it off of my mind, that the tag says "made in italy --- by chinese workers (in small print)".
Not surprising. In most cases it is migrant workers doing the menial low wage work. I'm surprised it is mainly Chinese workers working for Prada in Italy. I thought the majority of immigrants there were Turkish.

go bespoke, a good tailor will definately make a dress shirt 'nice' for you that will fit perfectly and to your taste...made from minimum super 120 2 fold cotton for a lot less than the fine shirts you already own.

Originally Posted by laphroaig

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Not surprising. In most cases it is migrant workers doing the menial low wage work. I'm surprised it is mainly Chinese workers working for Prada in Italy. I thought the majority of immigrants there were Turkish.

I think once Turkey's bid for EU membership got rolling, wages for Turkish laborers (domestic or migrant) began climbing. IIRC, Italy's "grey" immigrant population are mostly Albanian or North African.

I have noticed that Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, etc. are increasingly favoured by high-end garment makers as production centres. However, I read a piece about a Romanian plant making clothes for a variety of labels that was using Filipina migrant workers, and apparently treating them quite shabbily too...