Most men do not know how a dress shirt should properly fit. Also, most off-the-rack men's dress shirts never fit right because standard sizes are set up to fit 'well enough.'

Here are a few ways to tell if your men's dress shirts fit:

1. You can comfortably button up your collar without choking yourself. The collar should be big enough for you to slip in a finger or two, and should not feel tight. It should not feel loose either.

2. The sleeve length is perfect when your dress shirt's cuffs just end at your wrists when your arms are at your sides.

3. The dress shirt's cuff is only a little bit wider than your wrist, but not wide enough that you can pull your hand through your cuff without unbuttoning.

4. The chest circumference of your men's dress shirt fits right if you can comfortably move your arms without too much restriction, and the seams connecting the body of the shirt to the sleeves are resting on your shoulders, not above your bicep.

5. The girth (waist) of your dress shirt is only a few inches larger, circumference-wise, than you are. This way, there isn't excess baggage from your dress shirt around your waist when your shirt's tucked in, and that it's not so tight that your seams are close to splitting. When baggy dress shirts are tucked in, they give the impression that you have a muffin-top, regardless of if you're an athlete at 170lbs or a lean 135lb man.

6. The dress shirt is long enough to fit your preference, whatever that may be. There are special dress shirts that are meant only to be worn tucked in, others that are only meant to be worn untucked, while some are long enough but short enough to wear either way.

Most dress shirts you buy at your normal retail store will not give you the fit that you need. For me, I would never buy a dress shirt unless it was slim fit with a 14-14 1/2 collar size. Finding a shirt with those size preferences was a nightmare though. The market was 'too small' for all big retailers to serve. A slim fit dress shirt with a 14-14 1/2 collar would fit perfectly in all areas except the collar. I truly needed a collar that was 15-15 1/2, but shirts that came with that collar size were too big in ALL other areas. In my old shopping days, I had to compromise the fit of my collar to have a fit that worked on every other part of my dress shirt. But you shouldn't compromise your comfort and style (I was never able to button the top button without feeling like someone was choking me, and I couldn't comfortably wear a tie this way either) by buying just any dress shirt off-the-rack. Shoot for bespoke tailoring, or get custom men's dress shirts that you designed with the perfect fit in mind. You can start designing your own dress shirts online with our dress shirt design app now.

This post was written by Danny Wong for the co-creation blog, trying to convince men to adopt co-creation and forget about buying off-the-rack.

In the next 5 years, we're looking to make co-created custom men's dress shirts as popular as custom t-shirts are today. We're certainly not sure if co-created dress shirts will ever be as big an industry as custom tees, but heck, we're going to try.

But if that doesn't work out, maybe we'll move onto pants, suits (again), or even men's underwear. If it does work out, we're still going to look at how we can continue to revolutionize men's fashion through co-creation.

The purpose of our existence (aside from making money, which certainly is not our main goal) is to change the way men consume. First, we're starting off with men's dress shirts online by using our dress shirt design app to put the power in YOUR hands to create and design something that you wanted, something individually made, tailored with the exact details you wanted.

At Blank Label, we're hoping to revolutionize the men's fashion and retail industry. Maybe we won't be the company that is the be-all and end-all of co-creation, but we still envision a world in which consumers have an actual say in what retailers are creating. I'm personally tired of shopping for things that I want, and never being able to find the product that fits my exact specifications. Isn't it also incredibly frustrating when that awesome dress shirt you bought, which you thought was totally unique and funky, was bought by 70 other guys in your town? I experience this a lot in my hometown of NYC, where 8 million people live and where many others travel to. I'm very likely to pass by strangers wearing clothes that I have in my wardrobe. Sometimes, I see guys wearing the same thing that I'm wearing that day!

That's part of the reason why I love Blank Label, because the clothes that I wear were created by me, designed to my exact specifications, and were made only for me. Therefore, out of the 6+ billion people in this world, I'm the only one with my individually made custom dress shirt.

Since mass-production and mainstream retail have failed consumers by providing product that is one-size-fits-all and one-style suits many, uniqueness and creativity are out of the question, so we're leading a revolt!

We're fighting against mass-production, lack of individuality, and being a slave to the all-mighty retailer. We're fighting for co-creation, personalization, and consumer empowerment.

Here are several ways for you to join the revolution:

1. Tweet this post and mention @blanklabel

2. Share this post with your friends on Facebook

3. Spread the word about co-creation and convince people to turn away from big retailers if there's some company out there that can provide product you're looking for that you can personalize and is affordable too (we're not in the best economic situation, I know)

4. Email a link to this post to your friends to get the word out

5. Link to us and this post on your blogs, tumblr posts, websites, etc.

6. Consider buying any co-created products, perhaps a co-created men's dress shirt (if you're female you can snag a shirt for a male friend or family member), to support companies looking to be a little disruptive to mainstream retail. For other co-creation companies, see my post on mass-customization, co-creation and fashion 2.0

We'd appreciate your support of this movement. We're not entirely looking for you to give us money so we can make you dress shirts (naturally we're not against the idea either). That's definitely not our biggest motivation. We're looking to really push the co-creation movement. Regardless of if we're the bigger co-creation company in the next 5 years or not, we just hope to convince traditional retail to adopt co-creation or to support co-creation companies in their initiative to crush the stubborn traditional retailers. But the only way that can happen is if YOU the consumer adopt and support co-creation too.

This post was written by Lead Evangelist Danny Wong, pushing the co-creation movement each and every day on the co-creation blog.

So we get a lot of customers and visitors to our website noting their concern that because we sell our custom men's dress shirts online only, they don't have much of a chance to try on our dress shirts like they would do at normal retail stores to see if the fit is right and if it even looks good on them. Personally, I love shopping and trying on clothes to see if they fit me right and look good, as well as if I might have any other clothes that would go well with them.

Things like this make us think about if we had physical stores in all the premium locations within the urban cities across the country, but frankly, we're a startup and we don't have the capital to pay for rent at most metropolitan cities, nevermind build the store and stock it with shelves of inventory. But that's not our style either.

If the customer can't try on his dress shirt, how can we make sure that the guy who's normally a Medium because he's slender, will have a dress shirt that's long enough to cover the top half of his 6'2" body? What about the guy that likes to hit the gym - so he has broad shoulders and an iron-plate chest who unfortunately has disproportionately shorter arms but needs the chest size of a Large?

This other guy also has a problem that we have to address that most men probably have as well, which is, most men's dress shirts you buy off-the-rack always have a baggy waist that doesn't compliment your truly slim figure. It even makes you look like you have a silly muffin-top when you tuck your shirt in even though you're only 160lbs of fit male.

Again, we only operate online, and we sometimes do wish we had a hot retail location in the heart of Soho, NYC, but since we only sell dress shirts online, we've had to figure out a way to satisfy our customer to make sure his dress shirt fits the first time around. Again, many men are hesitant to buy shirts online because of their lack of confidence in the shirt's fit, but luckily, because all our shirts are individually made custom dress shirts, we give you the flexibility to tell us how we should cut your shirt so it fits right the first time. No need to flip through racks of clothing at Express or Zara to see if your dress shirt size is in stock.

For those who have already played with our dress shirt design configurator, you've noticed that the first thing we do for sizing is ask your body type (for the guys that fall under 'circle,' please do not be offended, we promise we can cut you a dress shirt that fits so well that it compliments your figure), then we ask your normal standard size, height and weight, and then your fit preferences to give you the dress shirt that you want, without compromising a smaller collar for a shirt that fits everywhere else, or a longer sleeves just because you needed to go a size up since your chest can't fit a Medium.

We also have our 'Perfect Shirt Guarantee' which means you can return your dress shirt for any reason and get a full refund, or if it doesn't fit, you can exchange it (which is similar to returning it) for a better size. You just tell us what was wrong with the first dress shirt and we'll make sure those problems are resolved the second time around.

How else can we make your dress shirt shopping experience better so that you can support the co-created dress shirts movement, and so we can better serve you with a dress shirt that you want and one that fits too?

Drop a comment or mail sayhi (at) blank-label.com

Danny Wong is the Lead Online Advocate for Blank Label. Don't be afraid to tweet him either @dannywong1190. Also, feel free to read more of his musings on the Co-Creation Blog.

One of the most important, and yet surprisingly overlooked, things in a startup is morale. We’ve got a small team of four, so we're pretty clued-in on know how everyone’s doing work-wise, but also how everyone’s feeling emotionally and motivationally. All four of us are dedicating our lives to this, whilst still doing ‘the day job’ to feed the family, pay the bills, buy the food, etc. Living two lives is tough. Special kudos should be given to Zee, our Chief Interweb Builder, he’s just crazy, hundred hour work weeks are the lighter weeks. And he's got the fam too. As I said, crazy. But it's one of situations where I'm glad he's on our side to help us provide amazing men's dress shirts online. 

Getting the support from friends and family always makes this a little special. I want to take this opportunity for the kind words from our loved ones and those of us who've seen us toil behind the scenes and cheer us on from the proverbial sidelines. But let's be honest, we're decent people, and family and friends kind of have to give you a bit of encouragement every now and again. What's made this week really great is ... you.

It's kind of all worth it when people visit what you've built and buy what you believe in. We invest a lot of time trying to understand users (people who browse the site) and even more time speaking to customers (at least those who reply back to my emails thanking them with a caveat of looking for feedback). We're racking our brains trying to figure out how to enhance the experience for you, so I can say we totally, totally appreciate the people who do go to that extra effort of dropping a few words of commentary. I also want to say a special thanks for those who’ve taken the extra step of sharing us and our launch with their spheres of influence by blogging about us;

Johnathan Bell  from Guy Style Guide – Definitely one of our favorite male fashion bloggers threw us a plug in A FAQ for Finding the Perfect Dress Shirt

Michael  Tornato from the Trendy Dwarf – A true lover of fashion who has supported us for a while wrote this really in depth piece about us Blank Label … Do YOU like the Creative Types?

You can also find us in District Cut, DC’s Premier Men’s Fashion Blog who titled an article Exclusive Report | Blank Label

A post with an interesting twist comes from The Momentum of Failure on Creativity is a privilege, not a right. Blank Label isn’t here to judge. That’s my job

Brandon Crittle from Metro Style Men gave us a good plug on Express Your Individuality with Blank Label and he followed up suit by creating and purchasing a really cool shirt of his own

Serious kudos goes out to Dave Baldwin of men’s fashion and lifestyle megablog Thrillist, who reached out to us well before we were anything really and was in addition was one of the very first to post about us. Can’t wait to give you a hi 5 when we see you wearing your Blank Label custom dress shirt around Boston. 

Stay posted on more updates on Blank Label from Fan Bi and Danny Wong, on our Co-Creation Blog, as we journey beyond our first week and onto a crusade to change the way men shop through mass-customization and co-creation, starting with custom men's dress shirts.

Aren't you tired of your white dress shirts not being so white after a few wears? Concerned with why the collar turns yellow, or just frustrated that you have to keep throwing your shirts away because you're ashamed of how dirty your collar has become?

Sweat is a formidable foe to collars on dress shirts, not just white ones either. Light-colored shirts are also easily stained and soiled, and restoring them to brand new can be difficult, if not seemingly impossible. Yet the typical person will believe the solution is simple: wash your clothes and cross your fingers in the hope that your color-safe detergent is strong enough to make those shameful stains go away. Do not feel like a complete outcast if you have a dirty shirt or have developed yellow collar; everyone gets yellow collar and stains on their dress shirts. Let’s face it, life’s messy and we’re messy people! You may sweat more than the average individual or you may shower less frequently, but no frequency of cleaning yourself or any extreme avoidances of sweat will stop your dress shirt’s collar from turning yellow.

It becomes extremely costly to purchase new dress shirts every time a collar is ruined, yet you refuse to give up wearing nice, crisp white dress shirts just because they stain or become yellow easily.

OxiClean and SHOUT do fairly well at getting rid of yellow collar. My white shirt, and shirt collars for shirts that were partially white, come out looking mostly new (only pure bleach and other harsh chemicals can make your whites as white as they were when you bought them) after using these products. Simply spray your stains, yellow collars, and dirty spots with the formula until the area is saturated with the solution, let it sit for several minutes, and then hurry over to the Laundromat and throw your clothes in with a normal wash. Watch your shirts come out looking (mostly) new, and save yourself the heartache of losing your dress shirt as well as having to search for one to replace it, which adds to the debt balance on your credit card.

We are not affiliates of OxiClean of SHOUT, but endorse it for your sake to avoid the trouble of washing your shirts 4 times over to see little added results with each wash, as well as throwing good money away at the store to purchase a new dress shirt, never mind the wasted time spent searching for a replacement shirt, paying a premium for a dry cleaning which applies harsh chemicals to the clothes you love (no offense to dry cleaners), or throwing away a perfectly good shirt that can be easily restored. OxiClean and SHOUT are convenient solutions that work and are color-safe too.

Does anyone else have good suggestions for how to clean stains, dirty spots, and yellow collars?

Have you had great experiences with other cleaning products or services that saved your beloved shirts? What have been some bad experiences with cleaning products or services?

Sometimes men's dress shirts just get ruined and maybe you need a new one. Design a new men's dress shirt now. I'd recommend a white dress shirt with a black collar and black cuffs.

[Image Source: Very Quiet]

This was a personal experience post by our Co-creation Blog Moderator, Danny Wong, who is also a huge co-creator of custom men's dress shirts.

This is a weekly post on the Co-Creation Blog from Chief Evangelist, Fan Bi, who founded Blank Label in the Summer of 2008, and has been trying to change the way men buy clothes ever since.

As we move closer and closer to launch day for our custom men's dress shirts, the air feels a little thiner, the hours in the evenings don't quite seem long enough, and the discussions of who we are start becoming that little more intense. When you launch a website, whether it's a social networking site, or a content base, or a product platform like us, you'll know what I mean by the importance of being lean and just getting out there. It's like wanting to go up to a girl you like. It's better to have stumbled and stuttered, than have thought about exactly to the word what you want to say, only for her to be swept up by some other dude. We just really wanted to keep our promise to our fans that we would be live on October 31.

Instead we've spent some good thinking time deciding what we exactly what we want to be good at, and put everything non-essential to getting there on the back-burner. Our ideas list is long, and there are some gems in there, but if they don't fit into what we essentially want to be really excellent in, then we'll work on them later.

For us, that's a few things that I'll do my best to articulate here.

FUN - It's important for us to have fun, because it'll come out in what we do. You'll be able to see it in what we do, what our website looks like, in the products we make, it's all a lot of fun. Essentially we think that if we're having fun, then you'll have fun.

INDEPENDENT - We are young guys who want to do it our way. We are anti-establishment, we hate doing it the old way, and we love young guys doing cool shit. In fact, if you're a young guy doing cool shit, we'll probably want to give you your own individually-made men's dress shirt made individually for you just because we love you so much.

CONFIDENT - We also know that we're taking on larger companies who want to crush startups like us. But we remain confident that if we stay committed to the customer who we love we can make this work. We do this by having an online men's dress shirt design platform that allows the fun, independent individual to be self-expressive and confident in what they wear.

Years go by, and fads come and go. Once upon a time, someone in your family probably rocked a pair of parachute pants paired with a jean jacket and a single glove and felt like the coolest guy on Earth.  Though most of us would like to take ourselves seriously, it’s funny to think about the fact that somehow we end up adopting trends (however ridiculous they are) and wearing them proudly.  Years from now, you’ll probably stumble upon a dusty photo of yourself from back in your “wild” college days and have a good chuckle at your own expense.  We’ve all made some questionable fashion choices from time to time.  But have heart, boys, because as far as fashion goes, you’ve got it pretty good.  While I’ll be laughing at myself years from now for having the guts to wear leatherette leggings, you will likely not have to hang your head quite so far in shame.  What’s your advantage, you say?  Well, when it comes down to it, men’s fashion is a lot less unpredictable when compared to the whims of women’s fashion.  Take the classic dress shirt: while over the decades there have been slight changes in collar size and popular colors, for the most part, the iconic fashion staple has stayed the same.  It’s pretty hard to mess up a dress shirt and slacks, you know?  Just try and stay away from the velour dress shirt.

[Image Source: plaidalicious]

This post was written for Blank Label's Co-creation Blog by Anne Marie Jackson, advising men to stay away from velour dress shirts and try custom men's dress shirts.

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed the recent popularity of plaid dress shirts for both men and women. Whether the look is dressy or casual, it seems to be everywhere, though something this ubiquitous isn’t always a good thing.  Think back to the last time that every Tom, Dick and Harry was wearing a certain look. Did you ride the trend train, or did you let it pass you by? Though I’m no stranger to fads, sometimes people take things a little too far.  Just think of “Twilight” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I was out at the clubs and noticed not one, not two, but five guys wearing the same gingham patterned plaid shirt (think picnic blanket) in different colors.  They also happened to be friends.  I had a brief flashback of the ridiculous Fanta girls commercials and I thought to myself, “Are they for real?”  In a town known for its superficiality, you’d think that a reasonable guy would be pretty embarrassed to be wearing the same or very similar dress shirt as another guy in the club, let alone one of his close friends.  It was an interesting sight, to say the least.  So beware, gentleman, though the plaid look is hot, remember you want to stand apart from the crowd, not blend in as just another clueless follower.

[Image Source: angelune]

This post was written for Blank Label's Co-creation Blog by Anne Marie Jackson, explaining to men that fashion is something that you own, not something that owns you, so design your own style. You can start by designing your own custom men's dress shirts online.

They’re baaaack! The nerds, that is.  I never saw the movie “Revenge of the Nerds,” so I don’t exactly know what their revenge was, but some of today’s men’s fashion is a nerd’s revenge in itself.  Suddenly, everything “geek” is chic. Fashion’s taking a few notes from geeks and nerds around the world. From big ol’ nerdy glasses to cardigans and sweater vests, the classic “nerd” uniform is considered high-style.  Even suspenders are making a comeback.

Just leave the high-waisted tapered pants at home. No one can pull that look off.

Some very clever designers have replicated the age old cliché so artfully that the new trend embodies an entirely different persona: the hipster.  Fashion forward men everywhere are creating quite the paradox between geek and chic.  I never thought I’d fantasize about ripping suspenders off of a man, but that day has come.  And revenge is sweet.  Congratulations, nerd brigade, you win.

All my swooning aside, be warned future Poindexters, a trip into dweebdom should be taken with care.  Don’t go overboard.  Stick to one or two new geeky accessories.  If you try to pull off too much too soon, well, the joke’s on you. Expect wedgies.

Anyone else in LOVE with hot nerdy fashion? I know I am.

[Image Source: chuckp]

This post was written for Blank Label's Co-creation Blog by Anne Marie Jackson, advising men to try new things with fashion. You can even experiment by designing your own custom men's dress shirts online.