Reflexo is probably a word in many languages. The one I had in mind for the name of this Portuguese soccer jersey inspired dress shirt is the Portuguese word meaning “reflection”, as in an image rather than deep thought or other meanings of the word “reflection”. That’s because I have the red and green colours reversed, for practical reasons. Otherwise, I’d have called this the Portuguese dress shirt!

I’m not a fan of the red and green colour combination because it often feels Christmassy to me. Match it with white in between and you have something that feels Italian, or Hungarian, but it still feel Christmassy to me if there weren’t enough white.

The moment I first saw the Portuguese white “away” jersey shown below, though, I loved it for the overwhelming white giving the red and green the “pop” to stand out and not feel Christmassy, Italian, or Hungarian. I didn’t know about Bulgarian, which had the same colour combo with the red and green next to each other. While brainstorming for dress shirt ideas one day, I recalled this jersey and thought of making a dress shirt like it. However, when it came time to do it, I had a green I absolutely adored and wanted it to be the bigger of the two stripes, which one side was going to have to be for how I do my dress shirts with a placket across centre to hide the buttons at centre. Given the way men’s shirt buttons are on his right, that meant the green was going on the left, which was the opposite of the Portuguese flag and jersey colour. As a result, I was no longer able to call it the Portuguese dress shirt. Given it was a reflection of the colour scheme, though, I then thought of using the Portuguese word for reflection and voilà! REFLEXO!

Of the many dress shirt designs I have, this was not one high on my list. But because I had a button which split red and green at the centre, next to each other, I had everything I needed to go. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure what buttons I was going to be putting on this thing. Well, I didn’t have the exact green thread, but I overlooked it and am a bit disappointed in myself I did now. It’s a little distracting on the green to see the thread, but I’m hoping that’s just me. I hope most people who see me in this shirt would be a bit more wowed by it than to be noticing the green threads didn’t match!

Just to add a little more interest to the look, I put a red and green stripe on the cuffs, as a darker background for the gold coloured button rather than putting it on white. I just made a mistake in sewing that left the coloured stripes mirror each other, ironically enough, with the red in front on both cuffs. I wanted one red in front, and one green, with the button on the back stripe, which would have meant the gold appeared on both the red and the front. I could have offset the button to be so, so that one appeared in the front and one on the back. Artistic license, if you will, but didn’t go for it.

Right now, I have to wear this with black or some other coloured pants. I’m getting on to my own pant style design that’s like pajama dress pants without fly zipper. I’ll write about how this can work with my wardrobe, and how it’s better than regular pants with fly zipper, later. When I get that down, a nice white pair of pants will be made to go with this dress shirt.

I feel great when I wear this dress shirt, with its resilient white and intense red and green. It feels way too glamorous for a government work dress shirt! For that reason and the faults mentioned above, I’m going to give this a silver rating.

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