The London Lounge

At the risk of highjacking the thread may I trouble the guardians of the flame for a UK based shirtmaker recommendation please? Looking for a simple design of shirt with button cuffs, high collar stand (maybe even button down) in linen of course. Preferably with no minimum order quantity!

Rob

Good things have been said about Sean O'Flynn. To my knowledge, he does not operate with a minimum order and he is open to bring-your-own-cloth production. I have no personal experience, but if I was based in or frequented London I'd visit him.

Rob O wrote:At the risk of highjacking the thread may I trouble the guardians of the flame for a UK based shirtmaker recommendation please? Looking for a simple design of shirt with button cuffs, high collar stand (maybe even button down) in linen of course. Preferably with no minimum order quantity!

Rob

Some below are made to measure rather than full bespoke. Most have measuring days in London as well.

Ones I can think of are:
Manchester
Frank Rostron http://www.frankrostron.com/
Apricot Shirts http://www.apricotshirts.co.uk/
David Collinge Bespoke
Telephone: +44 (0) 7934 866 521

Birmingham
Benjamin Vaughan http://benjaminvaughan.com/

Other UK
Weisters http://www.shirtsbyweisters.co.uk/
Smyth & Gibson [Belfast & London] http://www.smythandgibson.com/
Grosvenor Shirt Company [Strabane & London] http://www.grosvenorshirts.com/
Barnett [London (Twickenham)] http://www.barnettmanufacturing.co.uk/

J.S. Groot wrote:Good things have been said about Sean O'Flynn. To my knowledge, he does not operate with a minimum order and he is open to bring-your-own-cloth production. I have no personal experience, but if I was based in or frequented London I'd visit him.

I can happily recommend Sean. In fact, I just called London this morning to place an order.

I heartily recommend Sean O'Flynn as well, particularly if you want a button down collar with a bit of a roll in it. It's a bit ironic, given that I live in the NY area, that I had to go to London to get a proper button down collar. I tried a few MTM, as well as one bespoke, shirtmakers in this area, and none could get the fit, let alone the collar, right. I stopped in to see Sean on impulse when I was in London last spring, and he managed to come quite close to a perfect fit on the first try. What I found particularly impressive, is that he immediately spotted the cause of the problems I was having with the shirt that I wore to the fitting. The NY shirtmaker who made the shirt had insisted the fit was perfect and claimed that I just wasn't familiar with bespoke shirts. The collar on the shirt that Sean made has a jaunty, yet subtle, roll that I'm very happy with. It's not quite the vintage BB roll that I remember from the 70's & 80's, but it's still very attractive in its own right.

Sean's shirts start at GBP 185 plus VAT and there's no minimum order. Monogramming is an additional GBP 10 per letter. He only gives a GBP 25 discount if you supply the fabric, so LL Linen shirts will end up costing quite a bit more.

The only minor complaint I have about Sean, is that it's been a bit of a challenge dealing with him administratively from a distance. He doesn't always answer emails and he sometimes makes delivery promises over the phone that he can't keep. This is only a problem if you're trying to get a delivery in time for a planned trip to London though, and shouldn't be an issue if you live in the area.

The other London shirtmaker that I found to be somewhat interesting is Frank Foster. He's an old timer who made shirts for a number of celebrities in the olden days. What I found particularly intriguing is that he supposedly has a large inventory of vintage fabrics. He only makes shirts from his inventory of materials and the price is GBP 130 per shirt. He only takes cash or check. His minimum order is six shirts and he makes all 6 shirts up at the same time, so you're a bit stuck if he doesn't get the fit right on the first try. While I would love to have him make a shirt for me, it seemed like too big a risk for an unkown result.

I would strongly suggest a short and pleasant train ride under the channel to an equally pleasant Paris to see Mary Frittolini on one of her visits to the capital. No minimums, traditional and truly bespoke shirtmaking delivered with a smile. Mary served her apprenticeship with one of the greatest bespoke craftsmen ( and LL member) Pierre Duboin who assists her on the visits. Bone up on your French or Italian and make the trip. For many of you it will be the first time you will see a real shirt.

Cheers

When does she visit Paris and is there some way of getting in touch with her?

Kayak81 wrote: The only minor complaint I have about Sean, is that it's been a bit of a challenge dealing with him administratively from a distance. He doesn't always answer emails and he sometimes makes delivery promises over the phone that he can't keep. This is only a problem if you're trying to get a delivery in time for a planned trip to London though, and shouldn't be an issue if you live in the area.

There has been an issue with my shirts more than one time. Once Mr. O'Flynn had forgotten all about the order, even though he had written the date of my next visit down: "Please drop me a mail just a week before your next visit". Then the shirts were made up, but back home the sleeves turned out to be much, much too short. This was some shirts after the initial one. Mr. O'Flynn agreed on sending them back after having lengthened the sleeves, but in the end I had to collect them myself. Another time the cloth was out of stock, but you were only told so as a reply on your notice of your next visit to London...

The contact with Mr. O'Flynn is very pleasant though and in the end I am satisfied with the shirts that were made up.
But it has proven to be quite an adventure. Perhaps this is part of the true bespoke experience

Thank you all for the kind responses. Quel domage, I was in Paris last week for two days. I toyed with visiting Charvet but for irrational fears that I am not their target market. Mary sounds intriguing though, I'll investigate further! Any further information would be appreciated Michael. Sean O'Flynn is alway highly thought of, but sounds a little lapsadaisical. The key requirement is quality fit, make and style without any extrovert touches. No need for any affectation with such quality material.

Charvet will get you all that, at a frightening price.

One nice benefit is that they work well by mail. After my measurement (which I think was my only visit to the store), I've made several orders by e-mail and they've all come out very well. It might be time to drop in for a revision at some point, as the Ascot Chang copy of their shirt actually fits a little better. But Charvet does nice work and they were very polite to me when I dropped in off the street.

Charvet will get you all that, at a frightening price

Concordia,

Are you comparing Charvet's MTM service to the other MTMs? If so, I would not have thought the prices to be that much greater expect for the fact of the Euro echange rate.
If you are comparing Charvet's full bespoke option to MTM then one would expect a substantial and justified difference in price.

Cheers

I can only add that I remain a loyal customer of Stephen Lachter. General information on him is available here on LL, and it is still valid.

As for minimal initial order and accepting customer's own cloth -- yes, he does (4 shirts) and yes, he does (though the discount is quite small -- roughly the same as with O'Flynn).

Andrey

alden wrote:

Charvet will get you all that, at a frightening price

Concordia,

Are you comparing Charvet's MTM service to the other MTMs? If so, I would not have thought the prices to be that much greater expect for the fact of the Euro exchange rate.

What they do for me is, I would guess, MTM. Lots of flexibility in style, some meaningful adjustments on each of the components, but no try-on. But they're certainly not doing the standard 18-36 with the American collar.

I may be somewhat behind the times, but their prices are about twice what I was used to paying elsewhere. That memory is, of course, probably clouded with visions of a weak pound some years ago, and Hong Kong before the recent boom. Anyway, they do go over $400 more easily than I have seen anywhere else.

andreyb wrote:I can only add that I remain a loyal customer of Stephen Lachter. General information on him is available here on LL, and it is still valid.

As for minimal initial order and accepting customer's own cloth -- yes, he does (4 shirts) and yes, he does (though the discount is quite small -- roughly the same as with O'Flynn).

Andrey

I thought you were a Budd man, Andrey?

Did use O'Flynn, didn't get the fit right so gave up. Robert Whitaker - Dege & Skinner, very good, got the fit right immediately, now see no reason to use anyone else.