The London Lounge

Gentlemen,

my first question; given the fact that it appears to be a rather obvious issue, I cannot exclude it might have been answered, in one way or another, somewhere in the depths of the archives, but all my enquiries in this respect have proven unsuccessful so far. The issue: As you know not all people have the privilege to reside ashore the sartorial heavens, or London, or what you want to call it; in fact, some people only get to visit this city every once in a while, for a weekend only, in many cases, including mine. This does give one the opportunity to go to a bespoke shirtmaker, have all the measurements taken, and chose a couple of fabrics; it is not, however, a time frame sufficient for the fabrication of a sample shirt. No apparent problem, as the usual suspects all offer to send it to one's home, be it in Germany or elsewhere; from what I hear and read, though, those sample shirts are hardly ever perfect, and so the question that arises is: How does the amateur discern areas that need improvement? More simply put: What makes a good shirt cut? Sleeves should be sufficiently long to allow movement of the arm without pulling up to the elbow, granted, and the collar should be big if so is the head; but are there any more subtle things to know here? Harmony between shoulder, arm and sleeve? Constant distance between shirt and trunk? Avoidance of creases in specific areas? Or is it basically an emotional thing, e.g., "feeling comfortable" (then again if it would be, I could probably stick to my beautiful HK shirts, which are, however, tents to me)?

I do not know. Most people here do, I am convinced. I would much appreciate if you would share that knowledge, if tellable it is.

Hello!

As a tailor I happen to measure our customers for shirts, and it's always different!
It all comes down to personal taste and preferences, physique, and of course the purpose.
Basically speaking: It is a matter of balance. When you put the shirt on for the first time, check the following:
1) Does the collar fit well around the neck? It is alright, when you can put 2 fingers between neck and collar. This way you can wear a tie with comfort. It should be adjusted to the kind of neck you have, thus reducing or increasing the height of the collar stand.
2) Move the arms. That is the best way to "feel" if you like it or not! The armholes should not be too wide, or else they will hinder movement. Make sure you don't pull the shirt out of the trousers too much when raising your arms. That happens when both shirt and armhole are too wide!
3) If it is a real "bespoke" shirt, they should have considered the shoulders, straight or sloping. Same with a straight or round back, although it is a bit tricky. If they haven't, you'll find too much material in that area, or the shirt will simply pull up, when back is too short.

If the shirt feels good generally and still has some optical flaws, ask somebody to take pictures of you wearing the shirt. That way a good tailor will know what to do.

This is my first post in this forum and I hope it was helpful!

Holla, schneidergott: Yes it was helpful, thanks a lot. Shoulders are in fact a big issue in my case (sloping), and so is my back (rather round); if I understood this correctly, the thing to look for, in these cases, is whether the shirt does follow those contours correctly, and the way to tell if it does is to look for redundant material, as manifested by creases or the like. Also good to know about armholes and movements. All in all: thanks.