Every man regardless of height understands and appreciates the importance of dressing well and the effect it has on success professionally and socially. In that spirit, several fitting dress shirts should not be missing from any man's wardrobe. However, being a short guy, you must also have come to the realization that for the most part, clothing retailers have ignored short men. For a short man, it is close to impossible to find a dress shirt that fits properly off the rack.

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There is an upcoming crop of clothing retail stores that cater particularly to the needs and proportions of short guys. Their bespoke shirts offer a better fit for the frame of a short man with the overall length and the sleeves being shorter and narrower through the shoulders. However, the dress shirts tend to be quite pricey.Another option is having bespoke shirts custom made for you. Made to measure shirts are the ideal choice, they also comes at a considerable cost but its as close to perfection as it gets.The third way to go and probably the commonest is buying a good shirt which is a close fit and having it altered to fit you perfectly.

There are three ways to go about getting your shirt altered and for the purposes of this article, we mean "Button Down" or "Dress Shirts". First, you can look for stores that offer alteration services upon purchase usually at a small fee. Secondly, you could seek out a good tailor (It is not possible to emphasize enough that the tailor be 'good', a poorly altered dress shirt is worse than an ill fitting one). Thirdly, you could go the DIY route and fix your shirts yourself, don't worry, it's not as complicated as it sounds.

How Much Alterations Costs Depends On What's Being Altered | Source: ShortGuyCentral

When it comes to altering shirts, there are some parts that are very hard (and expensive) to alter such as the shoulders. It is crucial that the shoulders sit right and fit comfortably. Many shirts purchased off-the-rack will need to have the sleeves shortened if you want the shirt to fit perfectly. Sleeves are relatively easy to alter. All that is needed is your arm length (measured properly). For most shirts, its possible to reduce the length by up to half an inch yourself or have a tailor take out more (a really good tailer is highly recommended if you're going anything over a 1/2 inch). The overall length of the torsos can also also be easily hemmed without ruining the shirt, but don't over do it. The space between the last button and the bottom of the shirt if too short will make the shirt look out of whack. Ideally, your shirt should be slim fit, however, if you desire something more comfortable, you could consider having around 15% more space ensuring that the shirt does not get baggy.

Average Prices For Shirt Alterations | Source: Lamoda Custom Tailors

Advantages of altering shirts? Altering your shirts gives you the freedom to pick the quality, print and brand you like and have a shirt that fits you perfectly. In addition you can get your shirts at the mall or department store meaning you really don't have to go out of your way.For the fashion forward, it is easy to keep up with the latest trends.

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Disadvantages of altering shirts:It may take a while for you (or your tailor) to perfect the art of altering your dress shirts. In the long run, altering your dress shirts may wind up being more expensive than purchasing bespoke shirts made for short men depending on the extent of alteration required. 

Stay tuned as this will be an ongoing series aimed at giving you the information you need to make sure your wardrobe is top notch because it bespeaks the person. 
 

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