Whittaker (Dege) Shirt

[leiter]

I'd asked earlier for comments on Robert Whittaker at Dege's bespoke shirtmaking work. I gave him a try -- 14 shirt order, mix of dress, business, and casual, sample to start -- on his last US visit.

The sample shirt came recently and it is mostly a winner. The only glaring error is that I had asked for buttons on the sleeve plackets and there are none. All my other specific instructions were carried out: all buttons shanked; single rounded link cuffs; cuffs and collar quite stiff; high collar, spread, with no tie space. The collar width is just what I asked for, neither too spread nor too close. The armholes are nice and high without being binding. The pattern matching of stripes is very good. As for fit, it is a bit tight around the chest a bit loose around the waist -- but both of these by no more than an inch or a little more, I would think. He executed the close fit I wanted quite well.

I will wait for their next US visit so that Robert can see the necessary adjustments for himself rather than trying to instruct them by phone. But if the adjustments and the rest of the order goes well, I am pleased to have found a new supplier.

[Concordia]

Extra charge for the shanked buttons? And are they good?

[Costi]

single rounded link cuffs

?
I thought this cuff design (as opposed to what is generally called "double" or "French" cuff) was reserved exclusively to tails (white tie), wasn't it?

[Concordia]

single rounded link cuffs

?
I thought this cuff design (as opposed to what is generally called "double" or "French" cuff) was reserved exclusively to tails (white tie), wasn't it?

Or people who get sweet-talked by Alex Kabbaz.

[Gruto]

The pattern matching of stripes is very good.

Is "very good" equal to "seamless"?

[leiter]

The shanking seems good to me -- the stitching is clean on the back, diagonal across the button, it seems very secure. I'm not sure what you mean by bad shanking, though. No extra charge as far as I can tell. I didn't ask when I ordered and he didn't say.

The stripe matching is not seamless. It is seamless across the split yoke and then yoke to sleeve is very close to seamless but not quite. It looks to me impossible to make the matching at that joint seamless -- none of my shirts by other makers have a seamless joint there -- but maybe I'm wrong. The matching everywhere else is also excellent, i.e. the width of the stripe spacing is not disturbed by the collar or body joins, stitching is well placed relative to the stripe pattern, etc.

As for the link cuff, I prefer it to the double cuff -- and it doesn't strike me as sartorially wrong in a bad way. One nice feature is that if you go somewhere casual or are just relaxing at home with a drink you can take off your coat and cufflinks and roll up your sleeves without the roll being bulky, as it is with a double cuff. Also (and there may be a way around this that I just don't know) it seems you can get a link cuff stiffer, which I like, because you needn't allow for the fold.

I've always had my dress shirts for black tie, white tie, morning dress, etc. as link cuffs, then switched my business shirts to link cuffs a few years ago. My casual shirts have single button cuffs mostly.

[Costi]

I must confess I never considered I might want to roll up my sleeves when wearing a shirt with cufflinks and a coat... unless I have a flat tire on a highway I try to live up all through the day to the demands of the clothes I chose in the morning. Unfortunately present day life's pace no longer allows most of us to change clothes 2 times during the day and thus be properly dressed for every occasion and time of day. We are most often left with the possibility to either "adapt" our outfit throughout the day (undoing the top button of the shirt, loosening the tie, leaving the DB coat unbuttoned) or simply "endure" up to the last consequence the proper decorum required by what we are wearing, if that happens not to be casual.
As far as the appropriateness of link cuffs with anything else than tails, I am ready to be taught otherwise as it may well be a matter of style over which I might have a wrong preconceived idea. I never encountered this topic on the LL before - any thoughts?
It sounds very wise of you to wait until you can be fitted by your shirtmaker before proceeding with the order - I think it is an essential step in assuring good fit and it simply cannot be replaced by any amount of experience or talent in cutting. Perhaps it is THE step that makes the essential difference between bespoke and non-bespoke; pattern-making is important, no doubt, but if it were commonly possible to make a perfect coat or shirt without any fittings, based on a bespoke pattern, tailors around the World would be doing it. The only exception may be trousers, which a talented tailor may get right at the first attempt - but anything else from the waist up will need some degree of alteration during successive fittings. I don't remember where I read (maybe on the LL somewhere) that 200-300 years ago it was not uncommon to have as many as ten fittings for a set of clothes (presumably for more complicated court dress garments). And I don't see why tailors today would be much better at cutting than in those days.

[TVD]

Re link cuffs:

I only like them when they are very crisply starched (as they would be anyway when wearing tails). Any limpness destroys the look for me. For everyday wear, I would find this too uncomfortable. An unfused, softly interlined double cuff is the most pleasant to feel around one's wrist for me, even better than a normal buttoned cuff (the lack of stitching makes a difference, I guess, the edge is softer).

Also, I prefer link cuffs to have square corners. The rounded corner to me resemples the patent button cuffs that sport a second buttonhole next to the button to offer a choice between button or cufflink. A design I intensely detest: Why wear a cufflink with a sports shirt, and why so timid not to wear a proper double cuff?

[DD MacDonald]

Re link cuffs:
Why wear a cufflink with a sports shirt, and why so timid not to wear a proper double cuff?

TVD, I have an old N&L tattersal shirt with what I now assume to be a "link cuff" (or convertable link cuff) in that it looks like a regular buttoned barrel cuff but has a button hole below the button (like an inverted exclamation point) that allows a cufflink if one chose. Not to get hung up on "appropriateness" but there are occasions when a silk knot or the wonderful pair of hallmarked sterling grouse links that my wife gave me from Holland and Holland work wonderfully. I could be going to mass,a Sunday brunch or a shoot (in England) where this dressed-up touch is not out of place. Vis "double cuffs", I have one tattersal shirt with double cuffs and it is a bit much.

I am a fan of having one or two good cufflinks and wearing them most if not all of the time as an element of personal style or equipage.

DDM