Suggestions for London shirtmaker for casual shirts?

[andreyb]

the price quoted for Budd is recent - my last commission was picked up three weeks ago. This price does not include the cloth; for leisure shirts, I buy the fabric myself. When using their cloth, prices start at 190 £ ca.

David, sorry... Indeed, I thought that you quoted an old price. I stand corrected.

Andrey

[DFR]

Ascot Chang of Hong Kong on one of their frequent visits to the capital?

[Julian]

Julian

Thanks for your well thought out post and question.

I have posted something on DWS you might want to keep in mind:

http://dresswithstyle.com/2011/09/28/th ... n-bespoke/

Good luck

Michael Alden

Thank you Michael, that's a most interesting post. It's made me realise that I really should have addressed this issue long ago, it's frightening how bad the fit is on most of my shirts and it's been a pleasant surprise to me as to how relatively affordable even a top flight bespoke shirtmaker is. Still, better late than never.

- Julian

P.S. Brace yourself, more basic beginner's questions are about to appear in another post!

[Berwick]

I would suggest Russel and Hodge of Windmill Street. I have received a number of button down collar MTM shirst from them which I am happy with. There is no minimum order, cost depends on the cloth but starts about £115 last time I checked. They stock the usual Acorn, Alumo, Thomas Mason fabrics.

They will make you a first shirt, let you wear it and wash it a couple of times, and then you can go back to have the fit tweaked. If they get the fit badly wrong (e.g. too snug) they will bin the shirt and start again with a new pattern. You can design your own collar shapes if you like, but they have a number of standard patterns.

You can see the shirts being made on the premises - they are mainly machine stitched. The shop is a bit cluttered, and the changing room is often used for other purposes, but the shirts are good value.

They also do bespoke shirts. I believe the main (only?) difference is in the number of measurements taken by the cutter. The cost is an extra 20 pounds or so per shirt. My MTM shirts have different length left and right arms, and a larger left cuff to accomodate my watch, but if you have a particularly difficult shape their bespoke may be the way to go.

[Concordia]

It might also depend on what you mean by "casual." If you're looking for a button-down collar, most London makers won't do a great job of it.

Thomas Pink did a pretty good Brooks Brothers impersonation, and from what I've seen, Hilditch & Key seem to understand how it works. But anyone wanting the floppy B^2 style shouldn't just assume that it will be made properly.

[Julian]

Thanks for the continuing suggestions and advice. It's timely since I plan to call into a few places early next week when I am in Londong for a jacket fitting. Russel and Hodge do look like one to add to the list, it's a nice mid point between high volume internet MTM (none of which have a good enough cloth selection for my purposes) and the higher-end shirt makers.

By casual I don't mean button-down collar, personally I don't really like them. I mean softer collars and cuffs, non-business-shirt materials (flannel, linen, micro-cord and things like that) and no placket. I'd be willing to listen to advice from whatever shirtmaker I choose regarding these design features but they're what I mostly have on my current collection of ill-fitting RTW casual shirts.

- Julian

[Berwick]

I think I spelt Russell and Hodge incorrectly. I mentioned button down shirts simply because it was a lack of decent ones RTW that made me take the plunge of getting shirts made for me.

[andreyb]

If you're looking for a button-down collar, most London makers won't do a great job of it.

So true!

A few years ago Budd almost rejected to make button-down collared shirts to me. "Almost" because I only inquired on possibility (not requested), and Mr Butcher answered something like "If you want button-downs, it is better to look for American shirts. It is really an American thing."

Andrey

[davidhuh]

A few years ago Budd almost rejected to make button-down collared shirts to me. "Almost" because I only inquired on possibility (not requested), and Mr Butcher answered something like "If you want button-downs, it is better to look for American shirts. It is really an American thing."

Andrey

Dear Andrey,

the same Mr. Butcher is doing button downs and Liberty prints for me without raising an eyebrow
Perhaps he got more relaxed?

cheers, David

[Julian]

Just a quick update. I visited Budd and Sean O'Flynn yesterday. I'm sure that Budd would do a good job if I bought my own material, or would go and look for unusual stuff for me, but on the basis of spending some time looking through their books I got the impression that they would be well out of their comfort zone and not 100% happy doing the stuff that I wanted. From looking through their fabric samples there wasn't really anything that leapt out at me and only one or two samples there where, if pushed, I might have gone "that's sort of OK and as close as I can get" and gone ahead.

Sean O'Flynn on the other hand immediately pulled out a couple of pages of fabric samples (one a Thomas Mason "limited edition" range of microcord that has been released fairly recently). I liked enough of the fabrics on just those two initial pages to have had a problem deciding which one to go for first for the trial shirt (spoiled by choice). I also didn't really need to do any agonising over collar, cuff and placket details because Sean managed to preempt all of those by volunteering solutions that I was comfortable with before I got to raise the issues. On the collar stiffness and shape he had something he was currently working on with just the right slightly softer and slightly shortened collar for exactly my type of wear and his initial recommendations for the other features where what I was thinking of anyhow and not tied to business shirt tradition.

After such a positive initial impression it seemed to be a bit of a waste of time to look further. Obviously until I see the first or second shirt I won't know how good the results are but I'm optimistic/hopeful that I've got this aspect of my wardrobe on a solid footing.

- Julian

[Berwick]

Does Sean O'Flynn have a minimum first order?

[Julian]

Does Sean O'Flynn have a minimum first order?

I have heard from others that there is a gentleman's agreement for a minimum of 5 but when I went in that wasn't even mentioned. In fact Sean didn't even take a deposit for my order for the trial shirt even though I offered one, he simply said that he would charge me the full amount when it was ready.

I think that pricing is pretty well known but I might as well mention it again here since I probably have the most recent information, namely a week and a day old. Pricing depends on the fabric of course but I was told that typical pricing for a shirt is in the £180 to £200 range. I chose a limited edition fabric for my first shirt which pushed the price up to £225. (Some might question the wisdom of choosing an expensive fabric for a trial shirt but an extra £25 or so hardly seemed significant and I was told that the limited edition fabrics can disappear at short notice so I thought I might as well go for it then and there.)

- Julian