Mak & Meg | The Shirting Edit
Explore our White Shirt collection, including slim fit, regular fit, and relaxed fit styles made from 100% cotton. Each white shirt is designed for breathability, durability, and effortless style, ideal for office...
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$150.00
$150.00
$150.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
$150.00
$180.00
You've reached the end of the Collection
Try removing a filter or widening your price range.
The Case for White
No other garment in menswear works this hard. A well-cut white shirt carries a man from a 9am board meeting to a courthouse, a wedding, a funeral, a first date and a Friday dinner, without asking him to think about it once. It is the only piece in a wardrobe that is simultaneously the most formal option and the most relaxed one, depending entirely on what you do with the collar and the cuffs.
That versatility is why dress codes are written around it. Black tie assumes it. Business formal assumes it. And when everything else in the wardrobe is uncertain, white under a navy blazer has never once been the wrong answer. Buy a shirt in a trend colour and you will wear it a dozen times. Buy the right white shirt and you will wear it several hundred.
But the white shirt is also the most unforgiving thing a man can wear. White hides nothing. A cheap, thin poplin goes grey after ten washes, shows every seam of the vest underneath, and collapses at the collar by lunchtime. The difference between a white shirt that looks expensive and one that looks tired is never the colour, it is the yarn, the weave and the construction underneath it.
Our Standard
Three details separate a shirt that lasts two seasons from one that lasts a decade. We do not compromise on any of them, and we will happily tell you exactly why.
01 - Fabric
We use two-ply long-staple cotton in the 100s–120s range, not the single-ply cotton that dominates high-street shirting. Two yarns twisted together before weaving give a denser, stronger, smoother cloth that resists pilling, holds its white through repeated laundering, and crucially in a white shirt, is opaque enough that you are not obliged to wear a vest under it.
02 - Construction
Every side seam is single-needle stitched at 18 stitches per inch, slower and more expensive than the twin-needle chainstitch used in volume manufacturing, and the reason our seams lie flat instead of puckering after washing. Collars and cuffs are built with a sewn-in interlining rather than glue-fused, so they will never bubble or delaminate. A split yoke lets the shirt follow uneven shoulders instead of fighting them.
03 - Finishing
Thick genuine mother-of-pearl buttons, cross-stitched with a shank so the placket closes cleanly and the button does not tear away from the cloth. Plastic buttons crack in the wash and chip in the dryer; ours are the last part of the shirt to fail. Spare buttons and collar stays ship in every box.
Choosing Yours
"White shirt" describes at least four different garments. Match the weave to the occasion and the shirt will do the work for you.
| Weave | Character | Best for | Collar to pair |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poplin | Smooth, fine, crisp, lightest of the four. Takes a sharp press. | Boardrooms, formal events, hot climates, wearing under a suit | Semi-spread or cutaway |
| Twill | Subtle diagonal rib, softer hand, more drape, resists creasing best. | Long travel days, back-to-back meetings, men who hate ironing | Semi-spread |
| Oxford | Basket weave, visible texture, heavier and more casual, softens with age. | Weekends, blazer-and-jeans, smart casual offices | Button-down |
| Royal / pinpoint | Between poplin and oxford, fine texture with body and opacity. | The everyday shirt, if you only buy one | Classic point or semi-spread |
Fit
A white shirt shows fit problems that a patterned shirt hides. Three checks tell you whether a shirt fits before you look at anything else:
We cut three fits from the same pattern block, Slim for lean builds, Tailored for a trim line with room to move, and Classic for full comfort through the chest and waist. Sizes run from 14.5" to 18" collar, with sleeve lengths cut long so a tailor has something to work with.
The Difference
Most white shirts at this price are built to a cost. Here is precisely where the money goes, and where it does not.
| Detail | Mak & Meg | Typical high-street shirt |
|---|---|---|
| Yarn | Two-ply long-staple cotton, 100s–120s | Single-ply short-staple, often poly-blended |
| Collar & cuff | Sewn-in interlining, will not bubble | Glue-fused, delaminates after 20–30 washes |
| Seams | Single-needle, 18 stitches per inch | Twin-needle chainstitch, 8–10 SPI |
| Buttons | Genuine mother-of-pearl, cross-stitched | Moulded plastic, machine-tacked |
| Yoke | Split yoke, pattern-matched | Single-piece yoke |
| Opacity | Dense enough to wear without a vest | Visibly sheer under office lighting |
| Expected life | 5–8 years of weekly wear | 1–2 seasons before greying |
Care
White shirts do not turn grey because of dirt. They turn grey because of three things: chlorine bleach breaking down the cotton, detergent residue building up in the fibre, and washing whites in water that already carries colour from a mixed load.
Cotton fibres need roughly 24 hours to fully recover their shape after a day of wear. Wearing the same shirt on consecutive days compresses that recovery and the collar goes soft months earlier. Rotating even a small set of shirts measurably extends the life of every one of them.
Wire hangers distort the shoulder, the one part of a shirt that cannot be altered back. Use a broad wooden or thick plastic hanger, fasten the top button, and leave space between shirts so air moves through the cloth.
Questions
Three is the working minimum for anyone who wears a shirt to work: one in the wash, one in the wardrobe, one on your back. Five lets you rotate properly and gives each shirt the recovery time that extends its life. If you only own one, make it a royal or pinpoint weave with a semi-spread collar, it is the only single white shirt that genuinely covers both formal and casual wear.
Yellowing is usually detergent residue combined with body oils and antiperspirant aluminium reacting under heat. Chlorine bleach makes it permanently worse, it reacts with protein stains and sets them. Early yellowing can often be reversed by soaking overnight in an oxygen-based whitener and warm water, then washing with half the usual detergent. Once the fibre itself has degraded from bleach, it cannot be brought back.
Sheerness is a function of yarn and weave density, not colour. Single-ply lightweight poplin will always show what is underneath. A two-ply weave in a royal, pinpoint or twill construction is dense enough to wear on its own. If you do wear a vest under a white shirt, choose one in a mid-grey or a shade close to your own skin tone, a white vest creates a visible edge, which is exactly what people notice.
A semi-spread collar is the most versatile, it holds a tie knot properly and still looks intentional open at the neck. Choose a cutaway if you wear wide tie knots or have a narrow face, a classic point if you have a broader face, and a button-down only on oxford cloth, where it belongs. Whatever you choose, it needs removable collar stays; a collar without stays will curl within an hour.
The shirt collar should sit above the jacket collar by roughly half an inch at the back, and the cuff should show a similar half inch beyond the jacket sleeve. Through the body, you want enough room to pinch about two inches of fabric at the waist, any less and the shirt pulls at the placket when you sit; any more and it bunches under the jacket. The shoulder seam is the non-negotiable one: it must sit at the edge of your shoulder.
On cost per wear, comfortably. A fused-collar high-street shirt typically looks tired within two seasons, the collar bubbles, the seams pucker and the white goes grey. A two-ply, single-needle, interlined shirt holds its shape for five years or more of weekly wear. Buying three good shirts instead of eight cheap ones costs the same and leaves you better dressed the entire time.
