Wondering how your dress shirts can be tailored, and how much it will cost you? Here’s everything you need to know.

More In This Series

This guide is part of a series of articles about clothing alterations. Feel free to check out the rest of the series:

• How to Tailor Men’s Pants
• How to Tailor Suit Jackets & Blazers

Oh, and you if you don’t have a go-to tailor, here’s how to find a tailor you can trust.

Even if you only dress up a few times each year, you need at least a couple of dress shirts that fit well.

Whether worn on its own or with a tie and jacket, a dress shirt that fits properly is one of the most flattering garments a man can wear.

On the flip side, a dress shirt that fits poorly will make any guy look sloppy and careless, regardless of how much he spent on this shirt or how great his physique is.

When it comes to wearing dress shirts, fit is paramount. It’s more important than fabric, price or color.

The best way to make sure your dress shirts fit properly is to get them tailored. Here’s everything you need to know about the process.

How Can Dress Shirts Be Tailored?

I’ve found that a lot of guys don’t realize how much is possible in terms of alterations. They also don’t understand that it is a very affordable solution.

Whether you need to slight adjustments made to a new shirt or want to overhaul that old, billowy button down sitting in the back of your closet, it’s important that you know which aspects of the shirt can be changed.

This graphic explains which parts of a dress shirt can be altered and how much it will cost you (click to enlarge):

There are some other, more advanced alterations that you can make, but I recommend sticking to the basics.

You typically don’t want to spend more money on tailoring fees than you spent on the actual garment, although that’s not a strict rule.