Saving cloth for collars and cuffs

[Guest]

Gentlemen,

As a neophyte to both the forum and bespoke, I've been slowly reading through the yahoo group posts. Fascinating! I'll likely post the odd question here from time to time. The first:

spalla_omerata (Mr. Alden?) wrote:

The cost of a bespoke shirt is high, normally 200 to 450 euros. But if you keep extra material for new collars and cuffs, then your shirt will last indefintely. Some of mine are now twenty-five years old and still look great. So, in the long run, these shirts are not as expensive as they seem.

Out of curiosity, how much cloth might be set aside for this purpose? How would you recommend it be stored? And finally, how long on average is one able to wear the shirt before cuffs and collar become worn enough to require replacement?

The long term thinking evidenced here is one of the major draws of bespoke for me, and it is certainly a refreshing contrast to the current trend toward disposablity in mainstream society.

I'm happy to have come across the LL. Thanks.

[Guest]

As my shirtmaker always keeps extra material for cuff and collar replacements I don`t know how much fabric is needed.

As for "how much time before repalcement" I have experienced that twills wear out faster than popelins. But it generally seems that after 3 -4 years of regular wear (twice a week) shirts often show considerable signs of wear, sometimes earlier, sometimes later.

[Guest]

Generally 1 yard will be sufficient. Some shirtmakers offer to store the extra fabric, but the big commercial ones (e.g., Turnbull) won't.

Fraying is dependent upon the frequency of wear, the fabric, and laundry methods. A shirt that you love and wear once a week may start fraying at 1 year. A tuxedo shirt worn 3-4 times a year can last many, many years. Hand laundering and hand pressing without starch will give the shirt greater longevity.

I have had mixed results with saving fabric and re- collaring and cuffing. I have found that the shirt body has worn also. In other words, I have the body to become "tired." There is also the issue of fading. I have a blue shirt which faded, therefore, the extra cloth was useless even though I had washed it few times. (You might have to wash the extra yardage to lessen the newness of the replacement fabric.)

Also, I have found these repairs aren't cheap. E.g., one bespoke shirtmaker that I used charges $75 for the collar and $75 for the cuffs. One often must do both at the same time. Sometimes it may be better to discard the shirt and get a new shirt at a reasonably priced shirtmaker, such as Cego.

[Guest]

My shirtmaker charges EUR 60 for the replacement of collar and cuffs. I even had collars and cuffs replaced on OTR shirts. In that case it`s nearly impossible to get the same fabric so I opted for white contrast collars and cuffs. Though I am not the biggest fan of that look I think it`s still better to invest quite a small ammount of money and get some more years of wear out of an otherwise still good shirt.

I only once had the experience of a worn out shirt body. In that case, well...