I’m after a custom made shirt. I need a 17.5″ or 18″ collar, but not the usual yeoman’s army stores tent shirt body and sleeves.

I’ve had one from M&S in the past, and whilst the fit wasn’t bad, the shirt itself was rubbish. See through cotton and puckering seams.

In an ideal world, what I’d like something made like an old school New & Lingwood shirt – ie, proper heavyweight cotton, easy to iron, 16+ stitches per inch etc, but with a good slim fit. In the real world, I’d like something at least a good as an off the peg Charles Tywhitt shirt. And I need delivery within a week or two, not in months…

Pattern matching won’t be relevant as I’m after white or sky blue. And I won’t be needing any monogramming or fancy stuff.

Any thoughts?

And to jump on this, someone must be doing custom shirts out of Hong Kong or similar for £15ea?

😆

My current choice is Roderick Charles, as they just fit me. Decent neck, but not billowing elsewhere. For properly bespoke shirts, time to stump up the cash, assuming you’ll be buying in the UK. And, delivery times may be longer.

HK tailors are, IMHO, resting on some faded laurels. Some are very cheap, some are just OK quality, but not cheap enough. If you’re heading there, I can suggest a few places.

What I’m after a is a psuedo MTM shirt – the online jobs where you punch your measurements and someone in a workshop on the far side of europe gets cracking with a sewing machine. The M&S ones arrive in a week or two.

I’ve got no plans to go to HK any time soon, but if you know anyone decent anywhere in Asia, let me know as there’s a chance I’ll end up there sooner or later. Last time I looked online, it seemed like a bit of a lottery with most of the HK & Shenzhen tailors.

When I was in London, there was an outfit in Fulham that wired* the measurements off to Cyprus and the shirts were mailed back in a fortnight. Looks like they’re still there – no online service, but half the price of somewhere like cad & the dandy. Maybe worth a call? http://www.stephanshirts.co.uk/index.htm

My experience of HK tailors is poor – gave two of them a shirt that I’d had made for me in a London shirtmakers and neither was close to the supplied template!

(yes, Pre-intawebz days)

I had one made by iTailor and it was very cheap and exactly as described and probably a bit better too (organic cotton).

I asked a similar question on here a while back. Out of all the recommendations I went for T.M. Lewin, they do all kinds of fits, including mine ‘long & slim’. Great shirts.

Not custom made I realise, but I’ve tried online Tailiors before and it’s a gamble tbh.

tron – try TM Lewin Slim Fit. I take an 18 collar, 38″ sleeves and they fit like you want a shirt to fit ie not enough fabric to make it triple breasted.

Tailor made shirts are pretty expensive, I’d do some more research and see what you can find from specialist manufacturers.

As per CFH I woudn’t buy from HK or any other foreign manufacturer unless you are visiting them to check them out and for measurement/fitting.

For fitting and HK just take measurements from a favourite shirt.

Taylor store make shirts to the measurements you enter. Not cheep though your looking at £50 a shirt but well made. Every now and then they do an c current have some discouts.

Edit: Should add that i had someone take a custom made shirt to india to have a few copies made. They were all different fits and fabric was not great. The copies have all been binned while the original is still ok after a year.

If you’re heading there, I can suggest a few places.

it just so happens that I’m off to HK on Friday. I haddnt actually thought about getting anything made but now the subjects come up…

Different fabric from M&S? I have a white “autograph” shirt that’s a heavier weight fabric but looks better than the more expensive superfine fabric they offered

M&S shirts are made by Bivolino who have a much larger range of different fabrics on their own website (but the M&S seem better value)

Better fabric isn’t likely to fix issues like seams puckering in my view. Probably poor qc at one of their factories – ie luck of the draw.

I’ve got some swatches coming in from Tailor Store, will let you know how I go on. 50 quid isn’t too bad if they’re decent – it’s not hard to pay more than that off the peg.

Got a Curtis and Dyer to get married in. still a great shirt eight years on!

Better fabric isn’t likely to fix issues like seams puckering in my view. Probably poor qc at one of their factories – ie luck of the draw.

I’ve got some swatches coming in from Tailor Store, will let you know how I go on. 50 quid isn’t too bad if they’re decent – it’s not hard to pay more than that off the peg.

Post back how you get on. I tried a few different places and found the M&S/Bivolino were the best made/best cut/best value. I’ve must have had about 10 shirts from them now and 2 were rejected – one was cut too tight, another was missing a collar stiffener. They sent replacements out without question and the ‘mistakes’ were both wearable so I’m happy.