The London Lounge

Dear Boardmembers,

I purchased some bespoke shirts while passing through Bangkok on holiday. I would really like to get comments on them. I'm quite pleased with how they have turned out, but don't really know what I should be looking for to be honest. The only thing I would say is that maybe the sleaves are too big; there's quite a lot of fabric under my arms. Any constructive comments will be appreciated!

Thanks,

Charlie

The only thing I would say is that maybe the sleaves are too big; there's quite a lot of fabric under my arms.

That's it. The armhole of the shirt is too big and probably the wrong shape, more like a RTW shirt. Get that fixed and you should be ok. Give yourself some tie space as well so the knot places itself more comfortably.

Cheers

Michael

Surely the arms are too long also, perhaps as much as 3/4 "? If Alden's proposed adjustments are made, then this may vary the length a tad, but currently they are too long.

Gentlemen, thank you both.

The sleeves are definitly too baggy and a little too long. The cuffs are also perhaps half an inch too wide. On the latter two points, I know how much to adjust the existing measurements. However, on the baggy sleeves, I am less clear. How much slack should there be in the upper arm of a shirt? This shirt has around six inches of slack around my upper arm. Other, better fitting shirts I own have perhaps four inches of slack, but now I've started looking, I'm beginning to wonder whether those are too baggy as well. Is there an accepted standard? I used safety pins to take two inches in on my right sleeve of the shirt in the picture below. I think it is an improvement on the unadjusted left sleeve.

clehuray wrote:The sleeves are definitly too baggy and a little too long. The cuffs are also perhaps half an inch too wide.

Although they might shrink after a few washes.

Yes, the smaller right armhole looks better. Your shirtmaker should understand this concept if you draw their attention to it. It is pretty fundamental stuff.

Michael