The Button Down
Button-down collar oxford shirts came to be the same kind of thing as jeans, the same dress-up, dress-down flavor, but from the other direction. They started out as dress-up clothes and wound up being sportswear. These days a guy can wear a button-down oxford with jeans, khakis, linens, or fine dress trousers; even with shorts. He can wear it with the sleeves rolled up and the two top buttons open for a casual look, or go so far as to put one on with hard finish worsteds and a pattern sport jacket, with grey flannels, a navy blazer, and rep tie.
I’m not much for any dogmatic or doctrinaire approach to dress. I think people should try occasionally to be creative, to carry off things that are unusual and innovative and personally expressive. So if someone says Thou Shalt or Shalt Not Wear This or That they thwart the creative drive that can make someone able to dress really well. But I will say for the record that most regular guys who wear a button-down collar shirt with a suit look goofy, like they just happened to have a clean one. It used to be done, by newscasters in their Madison Avenue best, in the Natural Shoulder Era, but no more. A suit is a level 4 thing, and a button down shirt is, even worn with a navy blue blazer and a natty tie, always a level 3 item. But be my guest. Have a go. Prove me wrong.
FYI I have heard that a long-gone Scottish weaving company once named their four basic weaves after institutions of higher learning; thus there was once a “Cambridge,” a “Harvard” and a “Yale,” in addition to “Oxford,” the only one to really catch on. There is also a basic style of shoes called “Oxfords.” Interesting, right? Perhaps the name itself leads to persistent popularity. I can’t think of anything we wear now referred to as a “Yale.”
In any case “Oxford” is a type of weave. It is a one-over-one construction, the most basic weave there is. Regular, traditional oxford is kind of heavy, and has a richly firm drape. Pinpoint oxford is the same construction, but done with much smaller yarns, so that the cloth is lighter and has more flexibility. Both should feel soft and comfortable; both should wear well. Regular, heavy oxford, though, looks like nothing else. The real thing. Pinpoint is more comfortable around your neck, especially with a tie. The colors, especially blue, are soft and versatile because the vertical or warp yarns alternate color-white-color, and so the overall look of a colored oxford shirt is softer than strictly solid cloth.