About Natirar

Natirar is a 500-acre historical estate in Peapack-Gladstone, NJ – which up until recently was the summer home of the king of Morocco.  The vision for Natirar is a 76 guest room mansion, an eco-friendly spa; a farm, restaurant and culinary center.

This is a picture we took.  See more dramatic pictures of the estate at the Natirar website

About the Restaurant

Their website puts it best, “Farm to table is one thing, Ninety Acres is a table at the farm.”  Much of the restaurants menu comes from the livestock and produce from the estates farm, with nearly the entire menu being local.  It received a four-star review from the New York Times. 

If you are from the area or plan to be in the area, we’d recommend visiting Natirar for a meal at Ninety Acres.  It’s surprisingly affordable for such a special meal on a beautiful estate.

The Chest

Fitting the chest is the best place to start.  We’d prefer our customers wear a tailored fit and we size our shirts accordingly.  A tailored fit (in comparison to a baggy fit) reduces unnecessary bulk, adds shape and style.   

If you’d prefer more room, choose one-half size up.  If you’d prefer less room, choose one-half size down.  Since we offer “In-Between Sizes” you can tweak your fit without going up or down a full size. 

The Shoulders

The cut of the shoulders will frame your upper body; establishing the proportion between your chest, shoulders and neck.  A proper fitting shoulder, with seams that lay on your shoulders edge, will add structure to your shape.  A overly generous shoulder, with seams that fall well over your shoulders edge, adds unnecessary bulk to the chest and armholes (visually weakening the proportion).

The Collar and Neckline

The fit of the collar is the “deal-maker” or “deal-breaker” for many guys, including us at Todd Shelton.  No other detail on the Todd Shelton shirt receives more attention.   We put endless thought into the shape, style and construction of our two collar options, and we put even more time into the ensuring the collar wraps around the neck properly.  To do this, our collar widths are generous and we developed proprietary “collar-controls”, both help keep the collar from spreading open.

The Length

Our shirts are designed for dual-purpose: office and casual.  For example: you need to be able to tuck your shirt in with trousers and untuck your shirt with jeans or khakis.  The overall length is critical to being able to wear the shirt (with style) for both purposes. The length needs to be long enough to tuck, but not so long that it looks like a business shirt pulled out. 

The Armholes and Sleeves

Often overlooked when evaluating a shirt, the armhole measurements have a meaningful function in how well your shirt fits.  An armhole cut too generous leaves excessive fabric to sag and fold.  In contrast, an stingy fitted armhole will create pulling and comfort/mobility issues.  As with all fit categories for shirts, finding the right balance is the answer.

We hope you found this article helpful.  Please view our shirt collection

Todd Shelton shirts are made in America

If you enjoy French cuffs and you love your cuff-link collection, do not let our opinion affect you.  French cuffs are embraced by many.   

Here are 3 reasons why we don’t endorse French cuffs:

1)  Not Versatile Enough 

It’s a challenge to look casual in French cuffs; they’re designed for formal wear.  As you probably know, the Todd Shelton design philosophy is to keep it simple to make it versatile (so you can get loads of wear from it).  With our standard two-button cuffs, our shirts easily transition from the office to the weekend. 

2)  High Maintenance

French cuffs are pretentious by nature; designed to get noticed.  They make a statement that if not careful, can translate into snobbery. 

3)  Hard to Wear

First, they require two small cuff-links that you’ll have to buy and keep up with.  Second, you have to carefully coordinate the (fancy) style of the French cuffs/cuff-links with every piece of your outfit.  If you don’t pull it off just right, the sayings “trying too hard” or “over-compensating” will come to people’s minds.  That’s a lot of unnecessary effort.

4)  It’s a European Thing 

American style is influenced by Europe, obviously (and thankfully), but some European style standards don’t mix well with our American style sensibilities.  America (and our brand) has a ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ sensibility and French cuffs don’t easily roll-up. 

A Well-Written and Funny Article on French Cuffs

“LOSE THE FRENCH CUFFS” by Katherine Wheelock for Details

A Case for French Cuffs

It’s only fair to touch on some pro-French cuff statements:

Does “ultimate” come to mind as your style goal?

We Agree French Cuffs are Completely Acceptable When…

 …you’re a member of a formal wedding party.

We hope you found this article helpful.  If you have any questions, please contact us

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Todd Shelton shirts are made in the USA.

Certainly a proper fitting neck is important, whether you’re wearing a tie or not.  However most of us are wearing our shirts (even dress shirts) without a tie and we’re paying closer attention to how our shirts fit through the body and shoulders. 

We choose to size our shirts by body (M, L, etc) instead of the neck (16, 16 ½, etc) to improve the fit through the body and shoulders.   Our neck measurements are standard in relation to body size.  Our neck measurements tend to offer a little extra room for comfort, see our sizing chart

Notice a proper fitting neck when worn with a tie. 

An ‘Real-Life’ Example of Body Sizing vs. Neck Sizing

Two of my friends both believe they have a size 16 1/2″ neck and both are completely different body sizes. James is 5′ 7″, 165 lbs. Doug is 6′, over 200 lbs.  Should they compromise a great body fit for an exacting neck?  I don’t think so.  James wears our M/L and Doug wears our L/XL.  Their Todd Shelton shirts give them both a good fit neck through the neck and a great fit through the body.  If both were to buy a 16 1/2″ neck from another brand, the fit through the body would be less than desirable – and the neck may not fit any better than the Todd Shelton shirt.

When Neck Size is More Important Than Body Size

If you have an average size neck, our body sizing will fit your neck adequately. But here is the exception: if you have a small neck for your body size and you plan on wearing a tie with the shirt more often than not, I advise selecting a neck size.  If you have a neck size 15” or smaller and you are particularly interested in an exacting neck, our neck sizing may not be your best option.  See our sizing chart

We hope you found this article helpful.  If you have any questions, please contact us

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A Point collar, in contrast, cannot easily be controlled without the buttons – tending to spread open and fall flat.   So we saw this as a problem, and developed a fix for it.

We developed a proprietary Collar-Control, a little hidden button and buttonhole to keep your collar from spreading out.  It allows your Point collar to perform like a Button-Down collar; standing higher around your neck and not spreading out.

We’ve seen different brands approach this fix differently.  Let’s look at the functionality of our design fix:

Notice the construction of the Collar-Control:  a little hidden button and buttonhole.

The left arrow shows the Collar-Control in use.  The right arrow shows the Collar–Control not in use.    Notice how the Collar-Control keeps the collar wrapped close around the neck.

If you buy a Todd Shelton shirt; when you first try it on, evaluate the look with the Collar-Control buttoned, then unbuttoned.  You will see how the Collar-Control offers you two distinct looks.  Use is optional.

Notice the Collar-Control is hidden, it looks natural.  This image shows how the collar will look with both Control-Controls in use. 

Do Not Use When Wearing a Tie

The Collar-Control should not be used when wearing a tie.  If the buttons are fastened, the tie will not wrap around the neck properly. 

When Washing

It’s a good idea to unbutton all the buttons on your shirt when washing, including the Collar-Controls.

We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions concerning our Collar-Controls, please contact us.

Todd Shelton shirts are made in the USA.  Would you like to view our shirt collection?

The placket is the center front vertical piece where the buttons and buttonholes are placed. The placket between the top two buttons can collapse under the weight of the collar band and collar – causing the neckline to droop and spread open.

To fix this problem we added an extra piece of interfacing (material designed to give stability to an area of a garment) to the placket from the neckband down to below the second button. This reinforcement stabilizes the placket, helping to hold it upright (see above photo).

Notice how the placket holds its’ shape. It doesn’t collapse or buckle. This helps you control the look of your neckline.  Compare that to the inset image from Brand X.

We hope you found this article helpful.  Would you like to view our shirt collection?

There are two types of collar stays. The kind you remove and the internal kind you never see (see below).

Both the removable and internal stays serve the purpose of adding structure to your collar. But they approach the fix differently.

The problem with the removable stays is, well–they’re removable. You take them out and forget them, you wash and dry them and you lose them. It’s too much maintenance to keep your collar looking consistent.

We decided that the internal stay was the more practical and user-friendly solution. They’re less rigid than the removable stays, allowing the collar to move more naturally. And you never have to worry about removing or losing them.

See how our internal collar stays perform when worn with a tie. The stays keep the collar edge straight.

Internal collar stays are one of several design differences making the Todd Shelton shirt unique.

(Todd Shelton men’s shirts are Made in America)

In designing the Todd Shelton shirt, we found our balance for both uses: long enough to tuck, short enough to look right untucked. Notice Paul (6’ 1”) in the picture above, you can see the shirt length and hem shape we endorse.

You can choose between a Point Collar and a Button-Down Collar for most Todd Shelton shirts.  We wear them both, there is no right or wrong.  Let’s look at the visual and constructional differences between the two styles.

Point Collar

Stylistically, the Point Collar is less traditional than the Button-Down. 

Structurally, the Point Collar is more rigid, it has two plys of fusible (adhesive plys of fabric used to add structure to garments).  This helps the collar keep its shape, notice the thickness of this collar compared to the Button-Down.

It has a non-removable, internal plastic collar stay that runs down the edge of the collar, keeping the collar edge straight.  Read more about our use of collar stays 

The placket is called a revere placket, basically the fabric is folded over, there is no seam on the outside of shirt.  We use fusible in the plackets to keep them from buckling, notice how the placket in the above image holds it shape.  Read more about how we fixed collapsing plackets  

Button-Down Collar

Stylistically, the Button-Down collar is more traditional than the Point.  It feels more collegiate.

Structurally, the Button-Down collar is softer, it needs to be softer so the collar can “roll” – the nature of how the collar creates a roll shape coming from the neckband.  Yet, we still use one ply of fusible to help the collar hold its’ shape.

No collar stays are used in the Button-Down collar. 

The placket is called a ‘Center Front’ placket, it is a 1 3/8” wide piece attached to the shirts body with two rows of topstitching.  This placket has one ply of fusible to keep the placket standing up.

Style note:  lately we have been wearing our Button-Down collar unbuttoned.  It relaxes the look.

We hope you found this article helpful.  Would you like to view our shirt collection?