There are some persistent mythologies in this thread.
First, nothing on a Borrelli (old school), Barba, Finamore, Kiton, etc. shirt is attached "by hand" sewing except for the buttons. For that you would need to see someone like Matuozzo and even with her, you would have to pay dearly and make it clear that is what you want. Even the shoulders, with their visible shirring, on a Borrelli, Barba, Finamore, etc. shirt are not attached "by hand."
All the seams on the RTW Neapolitan numbers are sewn by machine. Period. Again, nothing is not "attached by hand" except the buttons.
What people are seeing are the lap seams and buttonholes being finished by hand, and sometimes the edges. This work can be very finely done (as is the case with most Kiton shirts) or it can be done more sloppily (or carefree, if you prefer) as on Borrellis pre-company-restructuring. In the case of the seams, it is purely decorative. In the case of the buttonholes, it can be argued but not really demonstrated that the embroidery is more flexible (this might be true, but it is undone by the sample-to-sample variation in how each seamstress finishes each buttonhole...some holes are too small, some too large, and others just right. Some seamstresses are good; some are bad. Luck of the draw.) A hand attached button should normally be superior, since it can be shanked.
NSM shirts are made in a similar way to the RTW Neapolitan makers. It is a machine sewn shirt with various levels of hand-sewn finishing, depending on the level of such features you elect to buy. SF member marcolondra has some good descriptions of this system in some of his threads...basically, in Naples, the more you pay, the more of the shirt can be sewn by hand.
Mina has a good eye for fit and a focus on pleasing her customers, so that is where the value comes in as well as the choices in fabric.
