Sometimes a shirt is more than a simple shirt. Yes, as cliché and kitschy as that might sound, it’s often true. The feel and quality of an exceptionally well-made shirt isn’t something to be taken lightly for a discerning gentleman who wears dress shirts and suits as his social and workplace “armor.” Alain Figaret, located in Paris, is just the place to shop for the best business attire in France, and some of the most outstanding shirts on the planet.

A man donning a killer dress shirt doesn’t go into battle where actual blood will be drawn (hopefully), but appearance and looks do matter in the real world, despite what your mother might have told you when you were a child. People aren’t perfect, and many often do “judge a book by its covers.” (We suggest you get over this.) An expertly crafted shirt, cut from fine fabric and worked into a classic, yet refined style, can make you feel like the man you’ve always wanted, or needed to be, while making you look undeniably good in the process.

Alain Figaret is one of the few luxury shirt makers left that manages all aspects of production and retail. Most of the shops are in France, but you can find a few boutiques here and there as well, in far off and exotic locales like Hong Kong and Tokyo. The cut, fabric, feel and artistry (as odd as that is to say about a piece of clothing for some folks) of an Alain Figaret shirt is, in a word, superb. This retailer’s classic men’s “white shirt” is as about as close to perfection as you can get. Even the Wall Street Journal thinks so.

While these magnificent shirts do come at a price of at least 100 dollars or more (more being key), once a connoisseur of comfortable and stylish menswear gets a taste for this custom fitted attire, it will be very hard for him to go back to plastic wrapped shirts stacked on shelves in giant retail chains.

If you can’t make a trip to Paris, Hong Kong or Dubai in order to buy your apparel, don’t fret. You can still purchase and enjoy one of these fine shirts via Alain Figaret’s well thought out online portal. A variety of styles, sizes, colors, collars and cuffs are available for you to customize. Lovers of quality fashion can also take heart in the fact that the modern incarnation of Alain Figaret (established in 1968) now offers trousers, sweaters and men’s accessories, and even dabbles in women’s shirts and jackets as well.

So, the next time you’re in France, Asia or just online, treat yourself to some superior clothing and style, and swing by Alain Figaret, perhaps one of the best men’s clothing stores in the world.