Monogram Placement - What's correct?

About a week ago one of my dear readers requested that I do a post on correct shirt monogramming etiquette.  What an interesting question!  I've always known where I prefer my monogram so I perused some of my favorite blogs and even hit the Internet to see what others were thinking.  So here goes...

It seems that most, if not all, say that a monogram serves absolutely no purpose other than to make the wearer feel better about oneself and to show the world that he can afford to pay for additional accoutrement.  Well I say, "Horse Malarkey!"  I think anything we do outside of wearing a burlap sack is about making oneself feel better and that appearance can have a definite affect on one's mood, personality and general disposition as well as influence those around him.  There..that's the rant. 

Now, to work on the question at hand.  Long ago, when men wore mostly white shirts and most shirts looked like every other, the monogram was simply a way for gentlemen to identify their shirts in the laundry.  In those days, a monogram was often placed in the back neck line of the shirt or at the bottom of the shirt's front button placket.  Well, these days, the dry cleaner is still going to take a black sharpie to our shirts for identification, so it's not really necessary to place a monogram in those spots...unless of course you just like spending some extra money and your wife will think it's cool.

So today we place monograms elsewhere because we think it's a nice detail and to show that we have a higher value of our appearance.  The most appropriate places to embroider one's initials is on the pocket (middle or top edge), left cuff or in the English Position on the left front of the shirt about 3 to 5 inches about the waistline.  The English Position is never correct if the shirt sports a pocket.  Another interesting and appropriate placement would be on the left arm sleeve between the elbow and cuff (see the always elegant Mr. Astaire below).  Both the English Position and Arm Sleeve harken back to the days where a monogram would only be in view when the gentleman was not wearing his jacket or waistcoat.  The pocket or cuff placement is designated more for the gentleman who wants his mark to be viewed by others.  Why the left cuff or left sleeve you ask?  Glad you asked!  When a gentleman is not wearing his jacket and goes to shake hands, it is thought to be a tad ostentatious to present and/or flaunt the monogram to your shaking companion.

If Fred can do the arm placement, it's got to be ok!

A collection of embroidery from my friend ADG at Maxminimus blog

My favorite locations are the middle of the pocket or the English Position.  I always have my white shirts and some more formal colors/stripes embroidered.  I tend to not favor a monogram on basic blue and almost all casual shirts.  That's just my tendency.  The truth is that a monogram is very personal...whether to get one and where.  I always ask my customers if they would like a monogram and charge about $10.00/shirt.  And I'll put it anywhere they want unless they've chosen something inappropriate like the collar, right cuff or other odd placement.  Color is also a choice.  I tend to lean towards dark colors matching the general color of the shirt such as lavender shirt - go with dark purple, red stripe shirt - go with dark red.  You get the point.  There are also different font styles to choose from.  The general rule here is to go with something not terribly fancy, legible to the human eye and in a size appropriate to the wearer - about 1/4" in height.

Acceptable Monogram Styles

The English Position

Pocket - Middle

One additional direction I'll mention is that under no circumstance is it proper to don a monogram other than your own!  So that means RL (Ralph Lauren), BB (Brooks Bros), ON (Old Navy) or any other brand name is not ever suitable...unless of course your name is Robert Lee, Bob Baker or Oscar Nelson.  I'd like to thank the dear reader who posed the question.  I hope this helps!  Please feel free to ask questions as I'm always happy to weigh in with some history and opinion.  And Riley hopes everyone has a weekend!