Client: 6’5″ tall man, slender athletic build – weighs 210. Age 32. Church youth director.

Sizes: 16.5″ neck, 37″ sleeves. Pants – can get away with 36x 34″ dress pants

Wants: Trendy tall dress shirts to go with jeans, khakis or dress pants. Not interested in “old man clothes”. 🙂

Budget: Prefers under $75 a shirt.

Boy can we relate to monkey arms in my family! My husband and teen boys are all arms! I wish that I could tell you there was one perfect solution, but I don’t know of any. It seems that we order many items and some are hits and some are misses. When you have an athletic build, many big and tall items are just cut too big and the slims may be too tight.  Some of the normal sizes are too loose too, but we just keep looking. You will do best with ordering shirts by neck size and sleeve lengths. The started sizes such as XLT, etc. often don’t give sleeve measurements.  But, I understand that it’s frustrating to find some with style.

First off you may want to try a custom made to your measurements shirt. Some of these options are out of your budget, but a few are affordable.  Just for fun I created an easy care shirt from Tailor 4 Less made of an easy care fabric with a contrasting outside color. I think the contrasting neck, adds a bit more style to your normal shirt.

Total cost is around $68.  One thing that note, when putting in your measurements, the sliding scale doesn’t let you put in 37″ sleeves, but if you go above where the numbers are, manually type it to add the correct measurements.

Another company you may want to try if you want a splurge – or hint to your loved ones for Christmas – is Blank Label. Their custom-made shirts start at around $100.

Overall, I think patterned shirts look more stylish than solid colored ones. You mentioned that you get most of your shirts from Lands’ End, JCPenney’s and Macy’s and I think for the money, you are shopping at some of the right stores.  JCP – has the extra tall dress shirt options so that really helps with extra torso length too. I do know that you can find a wider choice from those stores by shopping online vs. the in-store selection.

Green Tall Oxford.  Sateen Tall Dress Shirt.   Wrinkle Free Poplin.

Jos A Bank has a large selection of shirts in your size and I know many guys like the “Traveler’s Shirts” that they sell.

You can also check here for more options.

In our newsletter that went out today, we showed a classic look for men.  As we mentioned, you can take any dress shirt and jazz it up with a v-neck sweater, leather jacket or blazer. See photo:

Levi’s 505 Regular Straight Fit
There’s nothing wrong with a classic pair of Levi’s jeans. Also try them in black or the rinse wash.

BKE Tyler Jeans – Straight Leg 34″, 36″ and 38″ Inseams.

Lucky Brand Tall Jeans – 34″ or 36″ Inseams
This brand is a favorite with my family.

As far as pants go for the younger crowd, avoid pleated waist pants at all costs. It not only adds pounds, but they are outdated and old-fashioned.

These have a flat front and are wrinkle free – the permanent front crease gives it a dressier look.

Kuhl Ryder Pants – 34″ or 36″ inseam, several colors.
More of a casual style – alternative to jeans.

I hope I’ve given you a few new options to consider.  You can also find more pants and jeans by inseams here.