A striped shirt earns a very particular place in a working wardrobe. It is as useful as a plain one, going with suits in every colour, with the widest possible spread of ties, in every professional situation you will encounter, and it gives you the visual interest a plain shirt simply does not have. A blue and white Bengal stripe, or a fine burgundy bar stripe on white, is not a compromise between safe and interesting. It is a proper choice, and made well it is one of the most quietly satisfying shirts you can own. We make them in the same Thomas Mason poplins and twills as our plain shirts, with the stripe width and colour picked to suit the suits and ties you actually wear.
Bengal, bar, hairline and awning
Shirt stripes differ mainly in width and in how much colour there is against the white. Knowing how each behaves is the whole of choosing one.
The Bengal stripe has equal widths of colour and white, usually 6 to 8 mm, and it is the stripe most people picture when you say striped shirt. It has energy to it and reads as confident. Blue and white is the classic. Pink and white is warmer and easier. Burgundy and white is richer and rather more assertive, so wear it if you mean it.
The bar stripe is a narrower line of colour on white, usually 2 to 4 mm with wider white between, and it is much more contained. A single navy or burgundy bar stripe barely registers as a pattern from across a room. It gives you texture and a hint of colour rather than an obvious stripe, which makes it the most flexible of the lot and safe even in the most conservative offices.
The hairline stripe is the quietest of all, one very fine thread of colour woven into the ground at regular intervals. From a few feet away the shirt just looks plain with a slight cast of colour to it. You only see the stripe up close. If your office is formal and you want pattern without anybody noticing, this is the one.
Putting a stripe with a suit
A striped shirt works with a plain suit and a plain tie, with a plain suit and a patterned tie, and with a very quietly patterned suit, a fine herringbone or a birdseye, and a plain tie. The one combination to steer clear of is a bold stripe with a boldly patterned suit. Two strong patterns sitting next to each other fight, and both of them lose.
Over a charcoal or navy suit, the two everybody owns, a blue Bengal stripe with a plain tie is about as complete as professional dressing gets. The stripe lifts a standard combination without stepping outside anything. For ties, keep to plain colours that complement: a plain navy tie against a blue and white stripe, a plain burgundy against a pink stripe, a plain mid-grey against any of the blues.
How we help you pick one
When you come in we put the full range of Thomas Mason striped cloths in front of you, then work backwards from what you already own. What colour are your suits? Which ties do you actually reach for? How conservative is the place you work? And do you already have stripes hanging up, or is this the first one? Four questions, and they narrow it down fast.
Most first striped shirts end up being a blue Bengal stripe, because it goes with nearly every suit, looks professional but not anonymous, and has been tested by more men in more offices than any other pattern in existence. The second one is usually a bar stripe in a different colour, burgundy or navy, which stretches the wardrobe into something quieter. After that you can go wherever your suits and your taste will support, and we will tell you honestly when a cloth is not going to work with what you own.