Buying a Tailor Made Shirt - Part 3: Cuff Selection

On the last blog post, we discussed the various types of collars you could choose for your tailor made dress shirt. On this blog post, we'll go through the various choices for what kind of cuffs you can have made on your dress shirt. (Download the full 30-page Tailoring Guide by signing up for the email list in the box on this page.)

First off, you'll need to decide what style cuff you want to have. While there are many varieties, generally speaking there are 2 traditional cuff types (standard and French), plus some non-traditional varieties (turnback/cocktail and convertible):

Convertible

Standard

Cocktail

French

Most people will go with a standard cuff, which is found on the vast majority of shirts; however, French cuffs (paired with cuff links) are also a popular choice. The convertible cuff can be closed either with a button (sewn on the shirt) or with cuff links - it's your choice. Turnback/cocktail cuffs are discussed further down this page.

If you choose a standard or French cuff, you will then have the choice of what kind of shape you want the cuff to be (note that all 3 shapes apply to both standard and French cuffs, even though only standard cuff pictures are shown below):

Angled Notched

Square Barrel

Rounded

If you do choose to go with a standard cuff, you can also choose how many buttons you want on the cuff (French cuffs have one button hole only for cuff links):

One Button

Two Buttons

Three Buttons

Here are some examples of shirts with French cuffs on clothes purchase by previous trip participants (note that all French cuffs in the pictures below have a square/barrel shape, but you can choose a rounded or angled/notched shape if you want):

If you're having custom shirts made, you might want to experiment and have some fun with a cuff known as a turnback or cocktail cuff. This type of cuff is also known as a "James Bond" cuff since you will find the character wearing shirts with this cuff in many of the famous Bond movies. Here are some photos of the turnback/cocktail cuff (note the contrasting color button thread and cuff fabric material):

Interested to see what kind of clothes you can have made during your Shanghai trip? Go here to see examples of what past trip participants bought. 

Missed previous posts of this blog series about buying a tailor made shirt? Here are the links:

Buying a Tailor Made Shirt - Part 1: Fabric Section

Buying a Tailor Made Shirt - Part 2: Collar Selection

Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series, which will be titled "Buying a Tailor Made Shirt - Part 4: Monograms and Buttons - Styles and Thread Colors".