The 1MX Dress Shirt

A few weeks ago, a very dear friend of mine asked about good dress shirts. He was looking for something with a spread collar, French cuffs, a trim fit, and a reasonable price tag. I sent off a few links and suggestions, but I left out one of my favorite shirts that's on the market: Express' 1MX.

I have few of these and they're great shirts. They have a slimmer fit than a lot of dress shirts out there, which gives you cleaner lines and a more athletic look that is neat and professional (hmm...one of these days I'll do a post about proper fit...). They generally have two darts up the back and a slightly higher arm hole, which help to achieve that slimmer profile.

Now, I know what some of you (my guess is %30 of you) are thinking: if you have some and you love them, why didn't you suggest them? Well, because you can't get them with French cuffs; or so I thought. I knew that the 1MX was to Express what the Civic is to Honda: bread and butter. And the 1MX comes with just as many options as the Civic: button-down collar, French cuffs, swept-back collar, various colors, etc. They aren't as customizable as something from Shirtsmyway.com, but Express has made a noteworthy effort to bring these things to us with a lot of options.

Here are a few of mine and some things I've done with them:


I left my blazer off the first one so you could see the shirt itself.

The only things that I would change about this shirt are (1) that they get pretty wrinkly after you dry them, and (2) that they don't come in regular dress shirt sizing (e.g. 16, 34/35; neck and sleeve measurements, respectively). Instead, they come in small, medium, large, etc. The problem I run into with this system of measurements is that my arms are a bit longer than most gentlemen who have a 15 neck, so the medium fits great on the neck and torso, but the sleeves are a fraction shorter than I would like. They do, however, make a few of these shirts in Tall sizes where the sleeves are a little longer, which would theoretically resolve the issue.

All in all, a good dress shirt that Express has been making for at least 10 years now, and that I hope we'll continue to see for years to come.
Wear it well.
Adam