Thanks Marc, those are beautiful shirts.

IMVHO wearing an OCBD shirt with the buttons undone reaks of fabricated eccentricity and there was only one person who got away with that and he was rich, Italian and probably eccentric. He also used to wear his watch over his shirt cuff, to save time and avoid the rolling up of the sleeve.

He probably had some other dubious and less visable fashion tips that also should be avoided, like odd socks and underpants inside out.

Peter O'Toole was once interviewed on a chat show wearing a watch on both wrists. He said that he was too busy to waste seconds looking at the wrong wrist when he needs to know the time. Wrong, this is a man with toooo much time on his hands (pun also intended)

The double neck buttons on the Italian button down shirts requires a larger neck band and therefore a larger knot to hide the additional material of the neck band. IMO big knots should be avoided with regular button down shirts.

However, in it's defence, if the Italian shirt is to be worn tieless as an OCBD, then the increased collar height adds a degree of elegance......as long as the collar points are buttoned up.

The architecture of a BB, or other quality makes of button down shirts, offers the correct balance for the tie (medium size knot) or tieless option.

RH

Check out the posting at the begining of this thread by lammatt, Grey BD jacket you will notice that the neck band is visable. Also with a stripped shirt you have a combination of vertical and horizontal lines. 

Not all tall DBs are dimensionally the same but it can happen on some types.

RH