A couple of notes:
- There is almost no situation in which you want to wear a black dress shirt. The exceptions are if you are employed as part of a wait service, or if you
really know what you're doing, in which case you wouldn't have asked the question. (I know what I'm doing, but I still won't touch black shirts.)
- Full width ties are dead. Long live skinny ties! For summer, get a nice collection of
cotton,
linen and
wool knit ties. For fall and winter,
silk and
silk knit. It basically follows the same rules as general clothing - heavy fabrics for colder weather, lighter for warmer.
- Don't shout using your tie; it's usually what people notice first anyways, and you don't need to overdo it.
The GQ Guide to Ties is a pretty great walkthrough to basic concepts in the shirt-and-tie world.