Best of British Shirts - new season now online

Our new season's range is now complete and online, including: * Shirts from: Ede & Ravenscroft ($89 - $119) Haines & Bonner ($79 - $99) Harvie & Hudson ($89 - $99) Hilditch & Key ($99 - $119) New & Lingwood ($109 - $119) * Handmade ties from Ede & Ravenscroft and New & Lingwood ($79 - $89) * Extra long handmade ties from New & Lingwood for $79 Visit www.bestofbritishshirts.com to browse and order. Please email us if you require more information. Best regards Alister Fitzgerald Best of British Shirts [email protected]

I agree with your selection of British brands; they're my favorite as well.

I particularly like the tie patterns. Such colors. Since you are an expert on the subject, would you happen to know if any of those houses make 3" (or less) ties? It is very difficult to find good ties because I have a rather thin frame and I don't wear any ties more than 3.25" wide.

P.S. - Excellent website. Was it custom-built or off-the-shelf?

Kent Thanks for the positive feedback. Re narrow ties, I do not know of any stock product offered by any of our suppliers in the width you are looking for. Â As an alternative, you may be able to obtain a bespoke tie in these dimensions. I am thinking of someone like Turnbull & Asser who has its own dedicated tie making business located in London which might afford this flexibility. But again I am not certain. Â If you would like me to find out more, let me know. And speaking of T&A, we are just about to start offering their products on our site, and also products from Udeshi London. Â Both make exquisite shirts and ties in my view and will sit very well in our lineup - hope you agree. Re the website, thanks again for the comments. Â It was developed using an open source ecommerce software package, OSCommerce, but the finished product is a fairly customised beast. We designed it ourselves and we outsourced the programming work. So not quite full custom, but not really off the shelf. Any other questions, don't hesitate to email me on [email protected] Regards Alister Fitzgerald www.bestofbritishshirts.com

Alister:

What can you tell us about HK shirts being made in Great Britain still? I know that four years ago they closed down one of their plants in Glenrothes, and recently their shirts are being sold without any place of manufacture label and with cross-stitched, not parallel-stitched, buttons. One forum member elicited a response from HK that certain of their products (unspecified) were being made in Portugal, Italy and elsewhere. At 89 pounds, I would be surprised if their cashmere sweaters were still being made by Murray Allan in Scotland, for instance. I love their RTW shirts and would be glad for corroboration -- as on your site.

While the questions are piling up: Can you tell me any more about Udeshi? The website turned out to be a typical designer flash item with no substance. Are those 'proper shirts' in your opinion (as in H&K or H&H) or do you stock them to cater for the more fashion concious?

Björn

RJMan

I have followed with interest the various threads on this forum and Ask Andy about the origin of H&K products. It was one of the many issues raised on our most recent trip to London to visit our suppliers (last month).

I was assured by H&K that their shirts are and will continue to be made in Scotland (hence the Made in Great Britain designation).  Certainly the shirts in the most recent H&K instalment we received (last week) are consistent with this assurance (including the parallel stitched buttons).

I cannot comment on the other products in the H&K range as we don't yet stock them, with the exception of their ties, which we will carry next season.  Their handmade/luxury ties are made in the UK and their standard ties are made in Germany.

I hope this is of some assistance / reassurance.  I too love H&K RTW shirts.

Best regards

Alister Fitzgerald

Bjorn

Udeshi shirts are some of the finest quality shirts I have seen and I am excited and proud to be able to offer them.  I am reasonably sure we will be the only online seller of Udeshi products when we put the first products online next week.

I don't blame your question, though.  There are plenty of people out there making shirts which are marketed in a very polished way but fail to deliver on quality.  And to be fair to some of them, not all are professing to sell quality (many do, though).  

But quality is a fundamental component of anything Best of British Shirts does or will offer.  Yes, Udeshi is a slightly edgier and fashion focussed label, but thankfully Oscar Udeshi (a fascinating and highly talented person) hasn't forgotten about the quality.  In fact, he is quite obsessive about it.

The quality of the fabrics he uses is first rate.  The construction quality too is exceptional.  From the high stitch count on all seams, to the finest single needle stitched side seems you will ever see, to 4mm thick gleaming MOP buttons, to the yoke cut on a true bias (45 deg) to allow maximum moulding of the fabric across the shoulders . . . I could go on, but you get the idea.

Udeshi ties (hand slipped) are of a similarly high standard.

We have investigated several other more fashionable labels to include in our lineup but have not been impressed with the quality so decided not to proceed.  Udeshi was the first fashion oriented shirtmaker who ticked all of our boxes.

Let me know what you think when I put the first Udeshi products on the site this weekend (hopefully).

Best regards

Alister Fitzgerald

RJMan

I have followed with interest the various threads on this forum and Ask Andy about the origin of H&K products. It was one of the many issues raised on our most recent trip to London to visit our suppliers (last month).

I was assured by H&K that their shirts are and will continue to be made in Scotland (hence the Made in Great Britain designation).  Certainly the shirts in the most recent H&K instalment we received (last week) are consistent with this assurance (including the parallel stitched buttons).

Alister Fitzgerald

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Alister -- thank you for a courteous, informative and quick response. It's good to know that HK is still making their shirts in Scotland. Now it makes me wonder about that stupid button-stitching conundrum. But that means I must have too much time on my hands.

Thanks.

Does this site still exist? I need to cop one of those Udeshis i forgot all about.

If I recall correctly, they sold off their stock on eBay a while back.

Yeah, they shut down because the guy running it needed to get back to his primary business (I think he's an attorney)

Originally Posted by knittieguy

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Yeah, they shut down because the guy running it needed to get back to his primary business (I think he's an attorney)

I think he also moved from Australia to HK and needed to liquidate his inventory