Laydown Collar Tuxedo Shirts

A conservative and popular formal shirt is the laydown collar tuxedo shirt. This option has been slowly rising in popularity and may just become the tuxedo shirt of choice. It is second only to the wing collar tuxedo shirt.

A standard laydown collar tuxedo shirt consists of the basic shirt form with multiple features. The first feature is the laydown collar. This collar styling is identical to a standard oxford or business type shirt.

The laydown collar tuxedo shirt has a few other features. Most of which are found on many other formal shirts. The next addition to the basic shirt form is the bib. A bib refers to the part of the shirt which covers the front of a person’s body. A laydown collar tuxedo shirt's bib can either be pleated, pintuck, pique, flat front or ruffled.

Pleated laydown tuxedo shirts adorn a bib which has vertical pleats ranging from one eighth of an inch to one full inch in width each. A pleat is a fold of fabric folded back upon itself so that the pleat is comprised of three layers. A pintuck bib is the same as a pleated only it is very narrow (one eighth of an inch thick) and must be stitched. Pleated formal shirt bibs can be either pressed or stitched.

Pique laydown tuxedo shirts have two ways with which to describe this type of bib, the easy way and the technical way. The easy way is that the bib of the shirt looks like a plain paper towel type of fabric. The more technical definition is that the bib is a plain-weave fabric with sunken lines between rounded cords with a plain-weave face. When the cords are in straight lines across the fabric the structure is known as welt and when they create waved lines it is known also as waffle pique or marcelia. Read more about Pique shirts by clicking here.

Flat front laydown collar tuxedo shirts are simply non-bibbed formal shirts. The front of a flat or plain front tuxedo shirt is exactly that, plain. Just like a standard dress shirt.

Ruffled laydown collar tuxedo shirt bibs are made of gathered fabric that is stitched in place to show a decorative front.

The final addition to the laydown collar tuxedo shirt is the cuff. The cuff is material located at the bottom of the sleeve. This is where the shirt sleeve is buttoned or cuffed. There are two basic styles of cuff, the barrel cuff and the French cuff. A barrel cuff on a laydown collar tuxedo shirt is an unfolded cuff which is closed by either a button or a cufflink. A French cuff is a soft double cuff that is made by turning back half of a wide cuff band and fastening with cuff links and never a button.