For casual non button-down shirts that will never be worn with a tie what do people think about having a placket front vs a french front? (Here is a random link, the first search result when I googled "placket", where the first two drawings illustrate what I mean: http://www.office-dress-shirts.com/shirt_placket.html)
My preference is for a french front (i.e. no front placket) since a placket creates a strong vertical feature down the front of the shirt, plus the fact that I'm so used to seeing business shirts with plackets, so to me a shirt with a front placket and no tie always looks somehow incomplete as if the wearer has forgotten to put on his tie.
The reason that I ask is because I just had my first bespoke shirt made up and when I got it out of the box I noticed that the shirtmaker had put on a front placket even though I had requested none. I'll need to go back for another fitting in a few weeks, once it's been washed three times, so I can raise the issue then. The detail isn't so offensive to my eyes that I wouldn't wear the shirt if it's not fixable due to some detail of the construction but I thought that before raising the issue I'd canvass opinion here and see if anyone puts forward any compelling arguments as to why this might have been a fortuitous mistake and having a front placket is the better choice. I want to make the best choice for future commissions.
- Julian
