button breaking

James35 · #1 February 19th, 2006, 06:02 AM

My office is business casual, so I rarely wear dress shirts/ties. But I had a big presentation the other day so I was wearing a suit for the first time in several months. I followed my typical routine; morning workout, then get dressed at the gym and go from there directly to work.
I got dressed in the locker room. My bis were pumped and really tight from my workout so I was having trouble even reaching much less buttoning the collar on my dress shirt. It was a tight fit but I thought it would work. After fumbling around for several minutes, I asked a buddy of mine to help. He was not able to get the collar buttoned either. When I tried again, the button popped off in my hand.
My presentation was in an hour and when I had tried shirts on at home the night before, this was the only one that fit. I realized though I was close to a mens clothing store. I stopped in and asked if they could sew the button back on. The salesman thought that the shirt was too small; he was surprised when I told him it was a 19". He thought that if the tailor moved the button over when he sewed it on, then it would work. It did and my presentation went well.
So I'll be buying a couple of new dress shirts in the next few weeks. Looks like I may have to go to 19 1/2" !

Minotaur · #2 February 19th, 2006, 10:13 AM

Congratulations!

I myself recently graduated to an 18 1/2 shirt. Most of my shirts are 17 1/2, and while I CAN button the collars if I absolutely have to, I prefer not to. Fortunately I rarely wear a tie. And now I have a few 18s and an 18 1/2 that has plenty of room.

The 18 1/2 is a semi-custom from Men's Wearhouse. When the sales consultant measured me he said 18 1/2. I said no way. He said yes. And he was right.

Now the main problem with the 17 1/2s is that they are just a little snug across the shoulders and chest, so I almost always wind up with the top two buttons undone.

arpeejay · #3 February 20th, 2006, 03:52 AM

Great story, James35! Tell us your other stats?! Height, weight, etc.?

All the best...

Richard

James35 · #4 February 20th, 2006, 06:18 PM

Thanks Richard! I'm 5'11", 227 lbs (first time over 225 yay!) with about a 48 1/2" chest and 18 1/2" arms (and as mentioned, a little over a 19" neck!)
Here's a new pic of me; it was taken at a resturant for a friend's birthday party just a couple of weeks ago.

http://community.webshots.com/user/trig1967

James

arpeejay · #5 February 20th, 2006, 08:40 PM

Very impressive, James! Yer a hunk!

xoxo

Richard

Aikuchi · #6 February 21st, 2006, 10:18 AM

~~~~~~~~

Digibacker · #7 February 23rd, 2006, 06:46 AM

Indeed, very nice. I'm sure we'd all like to see more pics after that.

ottomun6 · #8 February 25th, 2006, 07:51 AM

Wow! what a tank!

Kymuscleboy · #9 February 25th, 2006, 01:13 PM

Dude, that pic is awesome! The only problem is it's a little small (the pic itself, not the subject!).

You should really be proud of your accomplishment, and PLEASE share more.

James35 · #10 February 27th, 2006, 05:20 PM

You guys are so great - thanks so much for the compliments! I've never been called a tank before - thats so awesome! I'm even more fired up about working out now.
I don't have any other recent pics. But because of your encouragement I'm gonna make sure I have my camera with me more often so I can try to get some new pics.
By the way, if you click on that pic enough, you should get to a screen that says 'view pic at full resolution' and then you can see at least a somewhat larger version.

Thanks again guys!