A white shirt is the most common and classic shirt piece that goes fits perfectly with formal dresses. But a lot of people confuse themselves with its versatility. The one question that is asked many times is can you wear a white shirt without a tie?
Can you wear a white shirt without a tie?
Yes, you can wear a white shirt without a tie. Whether the shirt is a 100% formal dress shirt, or casual there is no issue, you can still rock a white shirt perfectly with a tie. But make sure you kill the fit​ ​and​ ​the collars of the shirt should not be pointing downwards because it usually makes a good combination with a tie.
Instead, go with medium wide spread collars that create an angle outwards and slightly inwards. These work well with or without a tie.
How to wear a white shirt without a tie
Speaking of this classic piece, that dominated every era with its versatility and simplicity. A white shirt is a piece that you can wear with different outfits for different occasions.
Although some people have limited this to offices but if you know how to rock this shirt, you can be classy.
Wear with chinos
The best to rock any semi-formal occasion is to wear a white shirt with grey chinos, or you can experiment with chinos because most of the Colors compliment the white color.
Chinos are between formal and casual. Which you can also wear to your office.
Wear under a suit jacket
As they say. suits tend to be worn with ties because of the way they are designed. And this is absolutely correct.
But, wearing a suit without a tie is another daylight trend nowadays. yes, you don’t need to wear a tie over a white shirt always. Although suits give you the freedom to experiment with ties, still you can rock a suit without a tie if you keep some key points in mind.
Know the occasion
Suits are made usually for formal occasions and their structure is designed in a way that looks good with a tie, broad lapels, and notch collars. So, avoid wearing a suit without a tie if you are going for any formal occasions.
Open the two buttons
Open up two buttons of your white shirt to remove the feel of a tieless suit. So, don’t be shy to open the two top buttons of your shirt when wearing a white shirt without a tie or with a suit.
Choose slim lapels
Broad lapels tend to fit with ties. So make sure to choose the slim lapel suit jacket.
Wear with jeans
Blue jeans is the most casual item that you pair with a white shirt. But the white and blue combo is best if you keep some things in mind.
Choose the button-down white shirt
Don’t choose a completely formal dress shirt with jeans. Instead, go with a button-down shirt to rock the good combination.
But, if you choose to go with a dress shirt open two upper buttons of your shirt and tuck in your pant. Add a structure to the outfit by using the brown camel color leather belt.
Also, make sure to choose semi-formal shoes or you can also wear formal shoes under it.
Roll-up sleeves
Fold the sleeves of your white shirt to make it look less formal. With your sleeves not rolled up will make it look like a disaster for you because the upper area of your body looks empty with only one white shirt. You can also, add accessories to your outfit to make it look more dapper.
Wear with formal pants
You can also wear a white shirt without a tie with formal pants. This is a great pair for your office where the environment is not too formal. But know some key points before experimenting with it directly.
Open buttons
Open the upper buttons of your shirt to kill the tie vibe. You can go with the one button open option if the environment doesn’t allow you.
Roll-up sleeves
Always roll up the sleeves, to make the accessories come into play. You can wear a nice formal watch with it. The tie is also an accessory and you need an accessory to replace it, so a formal watch, a nice leather belt, and formal shoes would be a nice combo for you.
Choose the right fit
When you wear a white shirt without a tie, fitting comes into play. It doesn’t mean you don’t need a fit if you wear a tie. But without tie fitting is one thing that either makes it or wastes it. Because with a tie you can wear a little bit loose shirt but without a tie, a slight mistake in fitting can be seen and will ruin the whole thing for you.
Collars
Don’t choose the shirt with tin point collars. Make sure your white shirt has semi widespread collars when you wear it without a tie.
How do you pick a good white shirt?
Collars
Collars are very important for choosing the right white shirt. Although things get a little bit tricky here because there are many options and you have to pick only one.
There are six types of collars.
Cutaway
This collar is popular with its unique type of cut. Usually, the cutaway collar has a square cut instead of a rectangular cut at the endpoints. Which means the endpoints are creating a straight sideline towards shoulders instead of downwards.
The drawback of this collar is that you can not wear it without a tie.
Point
As the name suggests these collars are pointy, sharp, and narrow spread.
These collar shirts are usually designed to be worn with a tie. You can’t wear a point collar white shirt without a tie.
Wingtip
Specially designed to be worn under a tuxedo. You cannot wear it without a tie or even with a tie, you can only wear it with a bow tie.
Tab
Tab collars are usually defined by the two tabs, present underneath collars, and attach the two Colors together.
These collars are usually designed to be combined with the bow tie. And you can not wear this shirt without a tie.
Spread
The spread collar is the most used type of collar in dress shirts. It has further semi-spread and widespread options.
In this shirt, the endpoints of collars are widespread and distant from each other.
British spread, Italian spread are some popular types of spread collars that are available in the market.
And the best thing about these is that you can wear them with or without a tie.
Button
Button-down shirts are more of a casual shirt that you can wear with jeans also. Although it can be worn for formal occasions also.
In these collar shirts, the two buttons are present on the endpoint of the collar, one each side.
This is the best option either you wear it with a tie, or without a tie.
Fabric
Oxford
This is thick material usually, worn on casual occasions. Avoid wearing it on formal occasions.
Although this is very durable and worm, the best option to have in your wardrobe.
Twill shirt
This shirt is very durable, soft, and can work both ways- for casual occasions and as well as for formal occasions.
Twill shirts are also wrinkle-free because of the tight stitching, which makes it easy cloth for ironing.
Poplin
This lightweight material shirt is a great option for warm days. It provides you softness and breathability through the fabric, which is a must in summer days.