The Pocketless Dress Shirt

1: Do you prefer dress shirts with a pocket on the left breast, or pocketless?

2: I'm currently looking for pocketless dress shirts. Where could I buy one?

The following stores only carry dress shirts that do have the left breast pocket: Brooks Brothers Joseph Banks Nordstrom

37 Comments
 

Keep shopping around and you'll find more. I try to go with a fitted pocketless shirt. When you find a shirt that fits well, buy a few of the same shirt. See if you can find a Macy's Men's store nearby. Some of the large mens-only stores have a nice range of price points to select from.

 
Best Response

The sartorial rule is that a gentleman's shirt should never have a pocket, as it historically was a mark of a working-class man who needed the pocket for its utility (think of an architect, stevedore, gardener, plumber, etc.).

Few men today know the first thing about clothes as it is though, so you're far from likely to lose any points in the office for a dress shirt with a pocket. If, however, you're in a more formal dining scenario (not black tie per se, but a restaurant like Per Se, Le Bernardin, Steirereck, The Ledbury, et al.) or are at a particularly white-shoe firm (historically Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, and Carlyle carried such a reputation among the American firms) or a prominent European one (Rothschild), look around at the senior guys.

You'll see Charvet, Turnbull & Asser, Davies & Son, Gieves and Hawkes, Henry Poole, and similar cuts.

Is this critical for an analyst or associate? By no means. Live within your means. If you're willing to spring for decent shirts though, there's no reason why you should be dropping $80 for Brooks Brothers when the same price would get you a made-to-measure piece from Proper Cloth, Indochino, or any of their competitors who will craft you something fitted to your body and designed to your taste. If you're going that route and have the option, yes, the sartorially correct decision would be to omit the pocket.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

For disposables or beaters that I wear casually at home or on weekends, Proper Cloth or some cheap fabrics from CEGO. For dress, Charvet, Turnbull & Asser, or finer fabrics from CEGO.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Amasing oh chap. The more I visit this site the more enlightened I seem to get. I would agree with you but nowadays most companies are happy people do not wear flip flops to work, even when I go for interviews I always wear a suit but the person/s interviewing are some times taken aback by why I am wearing a suit for an interview. Times have changed but I still love the feel of wearing a suit/tie/shirt to work because I feel comfortable in one and I think it is the uniform of business.

Thanks for the tip about pockets vs no pockets, this certain something I will keep in mind in my future shirt purchases.

Want to Lose the body fat, keep the muscles, I can help.
 
"APAE"

The sartorial rule is that a gentleman's shirt should never have a pocket, as it historically was a mark of a working-class man who needed the pocket for its utility (think of an architect, stevedore, gardener, plumber, etc.)

What about architects, engineers, scientists? hence the "pocket protector". my grandpa (one of the three) wore dress shirts with pockets / protectors / pens / protractors until the day he died
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Most of my shirts have the one pocket, just to hold my mobile phone, I do have two shirts without one and is quite annoying because sometimes I forget and struggle to place my mobile phone.

Want to Lose the body fat, keep the muscles, I can help.
 

What about your calculator, blue, yellow, and pink highlighters, red and blue pens, pencil, eraser and sharpener? I like to hold all of those in my shirt pocket to be ready on a moment's notice.

Double Doubler
 

Pocketless. Class issues aside, a pocket's main function on a shirt is to collect unsightly lint. In an office setting, it really has no utility.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

Either go really cheap or go really expensive. No point going middle of the road imo as your just getting same quality as a cheap shirt but paying for "brand".

I go TM Lewin. The quality is not great (and it has nosedived in recent years) but they fit me extremely well and I can get them cheap and replace often.

If I was not going TM Lewin I would only really entertain Turnball & Asser or Charvet as would not see the point in spending good money on anything else.

As for pocket v pocketless....really? People under the age of 60 still wear pocketed shirts in finance? Terrible look and completely pointless. Go pocketless.

 

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Want to Lose the body fat, keep the muscles, I can help.
 

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