New English Bespoke Shirtmaker: Wil Whiting

[Rob O]

If I may:

[aston]

Confused by your referring to the DOW whilst showing photos of Prince Michael. Am I missing something here?

[alden]

Confused by your referring to the DOW whilst showing photos of Prince Michael. Am I missing something here?

Thanks Aston, yes it was confusing. There were two separate posts. I have added a DOW picture now to the second post..

Cheers

[alden]

Just for the sheer balls, you have to love Prince Michael's collar. What panache!

C7J3MM by The London Lounge, on Flickr

BPBB22 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

But their is method to this lovely madness. Michael clearly has a long neck and needs a higher collar to balance and set his face. And for the collar to work, his variation on a Windsor theme, needs a large knot and a solid measure of tie space to accommodate it.

405 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

Absolutely love this look. Roll neck jumpers are great for giraffe necks as well!

IMG_0781 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

Cheers

[alden]

Made by one of the last great shirt makers:

image by The London Lounge, on Flickr

[alden]

Tie space, so the tie has room to nest...all Windsor variations

on9y by The London Lounge, on Flickr

RIMG0389 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

ll-brisa-2 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

IMG_0544 by The London Lounge, on Flickr

image by The London Lounge, on Flickr

Capture by The London Lounge, on Flickr

5536876491_fcdd28ea6e_o by The London Lounge, on Flickr

[bond_and_beyond]

Great stuff! Now we’re talking!

My three favorite Bond collars below. Don’t look sloppy to me!







BB

[bond_and_beyond]

Made by one of the last great shirt makers:

image by The London Lounge, on Flickr

Looks great. Is this collar really not fused? Looks like it is to me.

B

[hectorm]

To my eye, the collar on Connery´s picture looks a bit flimsy overall for his leonine head and his broad-shouldered jacket. There is no tie space which would have allowed for a bigger knot needed for balancing the whole triangle. Also the shirt bunches unnecessarily behind the neck tie.
Brosnan´s collar is better balanced, but still has not enough tie space and his knot looks a bit trapped under the weight of the collar tips. Also there is that ugly bunching again.
Moore´s collar, IMO, looks the best of the three, with more tie space and a more relaxed wearing of the sizable knot. Although I would have ordered a bit longer collar tips to reach the lapels of the jacket (perhaps it´s unbuttoned, I don't see).

[alden]

Looks great. Is this collar really not fused? Looks like it is to me.

Not fused but freshly pressed.

[bond_and_beyond]

Risking my neck in the lion's den, I post some photos of the five different collars I have had made with 2 English shirtmakers and 1 Italian:

No. 1: Turnbull and Asser Collar 1:
Untitled by Bond Beyond, on Flickr

No. 2: Turnbull and Asser Collar 2:
Untitled by Bond Beyond, on Flickr

No. 3: Budd:
Untitled by Bond Beyond, on Flickr

No. 4: Italian collar 1:
Untitled by Bond Beyond, on Flickr

No. 5: Italian collar 2 (button down)
Untitled by Bond Beyond, on Flickr

BB

[aston]

Pics 1 and 3 are exactly how I like my collars.

Hectorm, the Connery tie knot you comment on is surely reflective of the era, non? Mid - late 60's knots were always on the small, tight side, and I think his collar has longer points and more spread than was the norm then, which made it seem just that bit "different".

[Concordia]

BB, you like spread collars more than I do, but #s 2 and 5 came out very well.

[alden]

BB

We have a lot of work to do.

So lets start by going back to the base line of the standard Windsor collar. I know you won’t think that very exciting but bear with me. It isn’t at all exciting, in fact, it is pretty neutral. And neutral is exactly what we are aiming to achieve. Because behind the mask on your photos, I imagine there is a handsome face. And we want people to move from your center, your chest, up to your face and right into your beautiful blue eyes. We do not want their gaze to stick at your shirt collar wondering if it is supposed to be a helicopter or if you have let a large piece of chocolate melt on you where your tie is supposed to be. Thin wide open points on collars without tie space are helicopters melting your poor chocolate tie. That is a very poor collar, its standard Brit RTW and it just shrieks of pure incandescent volition. We do not want that.

So back to Windsor. You seem to have a pretty standard length neck and head size. Correct me if I am wrong. So we can think about an above standard, medium height Windsor collar with 9cm points and 1.5 cms of tie space with a medium degree of openness. There is something you should know. Tie space has the effect of incrementing the degree of open on a collar. The more tie space you choose, the less open the points should be. But at 1.5 cm you can have a mid point degree of openness like what you see in Windsor’s picture. 9 cm points get those nasty points under your jacket, where they should be. Seeing the points of a collar is simply not done in polite society. This setup will allow you to wear a larger knot, a bit like Roger Moore’s, and still remain more neutral than say Prince Michael.

Once you have crafted this collar and worn it you may decide to increase the tie space and reduce the degree of open on the points to wear a larger knot. There actually is an ideal size of knot for each of us. And this ideal knot size is a function of the size of our head and our general size. Large boned, big headed men can wear large knots. Fine, birdlike men need smaller ones. You need to make that call after some experiments. As a general rule, I suggest you go for the largest knot and collar your face and overall body structure can sustain. Thin tiny collars and tiny squashed knots are a disgrace to mankind and should be banned by the Paris convention, or some other convention.

Ok that will give you something to work on with your new shirtmaker.

Cheers

[bond_and_beyond]

Many thanks Michael. Lots of food for thought!

But you don’t think the Budd collar (No. 3) would get close with a bit more tie space and maybe slightly longer points?

BB