The London Lounge

Hi everyone,

A year ago I was in Turnbull & Asser and had my measurements taken for a bespoke shirt. Fast forward a year and I have now received my third sample shirt (I do not live in the UK so I cannot go to fittings in London very often). The body of the shirt is coming along nicely, although still not perfect as they are trying to accommodate the pattern to my awkward shoulders.

However, this has given me ample opportunity to test what collar of the shirt I would like. The collar of the first test shirt had a considerable tie gap, which I have asked to be reduced. This leads me to the purpose of this post: I am looking for the "perfect" collar which in my view is a cutaway collar where there is no shirt showing behind the tie and the tie stays perfectly "on" the collar. So far my T&A shirts have not achieved this. Could any of the experience members here perhaps guide me as to what I should say/ask for on my next fitting visit to T&A?

The "result" I am looking for can be seen in the film "Wall Street" where Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko) wears collars where the tie sits perfectly on the collar. However I am at a loss to describe to T&A what I am really looking for.

Any guidance/help would be much apperciated.

Many thanks.

A year for a shirt? A bit extreme, no?

JDelage wrote:A year for a shirt? A bit extreme, no?

But not unprecedented with this shop.

I should point out that after each fitting I have received the sample shirt within 3-4 weeks. The total time is partly due to me not visiting London that often.

The timeline goes as follows:

* August 2009: Initial measurements taken
* September 2009: First sample shirt received
* May 2010: First fitting at T&A
* June 2010: Second sample shirt received
* September 2010: Second fitting at T&A
* October 2010: Third sample shirt received.

So there we are. I am planning on visiting London and T&A in early November for my third fitting.

Have you considered patronizing someone closer to where you live? This is not going to work out, in my humble opinion. In one year, your body can go up or down several kg, and the maker is always going to be aiming at the wrong set of measurements.

That is a valid point. However I hope with me visiting T&A in November I hope that they will get it right. As I live in Oslo, Norway my choices for shirt tailors are rather limited I'm afraid, but London is only a cheap flight away.

I also post a photo of the collar I am really trying to get (disregard the stripes etc). How would one describe such a collar? See how the tie sits perfectly on the collar.

Thanks.