Borrelli shirts - really that good? Who really makes best shirts in world? - Page 11

Sartoriale (Gabor) use to post of SF. He was the first to sell Vass in the USA. You should email him about the borrelli shirt?

i have dealt with him, very nice guy. answers emails within a day.

+1.

There is something inherently dodgy about places such as STF and Sartoriale being able to find / sell their shirts on such a continuous large scale at such a discount - it wouldn't surprise me if by now manufacturers had caught on to this and were producing lower quality goods for places such as this - Gilt being a good example.

i dont know if that is true, but all the borrellis and brabas i have had from STF are all top notch. buttons, button holes, button stitching, shoulder balls, armpit and neck stitching, placket, sleeve stitching.... no complaints here.

I like T&A (fit/cotton/construction) and Kiton (cotton/construction) personally.

I don't really think that you can compare sellers like StF and Sartoriale to Gilt etc.

Whilst StF has quite a few shirts listed on eBay and on their own website, it's clear that a lot of the shirts are old-season shirts or are in "non-staple" patterns or fabrics. That's not to say that they are not nice shirts, but by the same token, they're also the shirts (and other clothes) that are often more likely to be left over at the end of the season. Fashion being what it is, businesses want to clear out old stock to make way for the new and so they pass it on to places like StF at low cost.

Presumably, Gilt started out operating on a similar model, whilst trying to appear exclusive by only allowing "members" to purchase goods from the website and only having certain brands available for certain time periods. However, it certainly seems as though Gilt moves substantially higher volumes of stuff than businesses such as StF and so don't think that it would be worthwhile for a company like Borrelli to make a lower-quality "sale" shirt to sell via StF.

Of course, that's just my opinion, and it could be entirely wrong.

fwiw, i also enjoy some T&A and kiton.

TBH I have seen lower quality Borrelli shirts made exactly for this purpose...

where did you see them being sold?

i wonder why they even make such shirts, i dont see how it can be good for the brand.

I can echo pretty much everything you wrote here. I purchased two Borrelli shirts from elitebargainnyc on ebay and have had the exact same experience (lack of hand stitching, garbage buttons, very short shirt, etc.). I can't complain given that I paid only $75 per shirt discounted from $150. I actually had the same experience with a shrt bought from Ehaberdasher a while ago (except the length of that one was ok). Did I get duped or are there two Borrelli lines, one with all the stops and one that's actually a cheaper diffusion line?

Sites such as vente-privee etc.

Using ( in stitches) how these things can be good for the brand?
In my experience I can say that i never have seen plastic buttons on borrelli shirts, and all of my own have been bought in Italy, so i don't know if there is a different quality for abroad markets, but would really be a suicide for the company.
These companies of sartorie napoletane......all of them, base their success to the tradition, the details and the passion to please their customers.
USA always have been an important market for the made in Italy, is a continent already, so there is a lot of attention for them, not trying to fool them making shitty shirts.
I can tell you that for example in Milan that is getting full of rich russian men coming to Milan with their ( young/model) girlfriends or wives just for shopping, all the shopping assistants in the boutique have the task to sell to russian the ugliest pieces at the highest prices, simply cause they really haven't any taste; i know i'm generalizing, but i'm speaking for the average of new rich russian people coming to italy to buy clothes showing they can afford all they want to buy.
Well, these are the russian, but here the point is another one: brands as borrelli, barba, finamore, kiton, isaia and so on are not even known from buyers as russians, so i'm quite sure saying that these brands take care of their fond customers, cause people buying borrelli and other brands, keep on buying these shirts cause of the quality, not cause of the screaming brand pumped by advertising and so on.
I'm used to see Australian Mother of Pearl buttons even in shirts much more economic than borrelli, made by italian brands not so famous as them, but which produce their items to satisfy their customers, and is not such high cost to put mother pearl buttons, so why borrelli should make lately shirts with plastic buttons, if their customer love mother of pearl ones?
As i said, would be a suicide, while for the hand sewn part, i can't be so sure, simply cause i've never had borrelli shirts from abroad, but as i said, all the ones i've touched with my hands bought in italy, respects all their old tradition which is a must to keep on stay on the high level of shirts.

P.s : as all we know, borrelli has different lines: some shirts have some part hand sewn, some others, have other parts, but i really Can't believe those shirts with plastic buttons are certified as original from the company

side note - on STF they clearly state the button material in the description of each and every shirt, so there should be no question when shopping with them as to what you are geting.

When it comes to these matters i think that full disclosure is a good idea

 

Ich Dien sells borrelli/barba etc shirts on this site and thus directly competes with the sites he mentions. This is not a secret but he should mention it anyway, as it has a good side and a bad side. the good is that presumably he has some experience of how the parallel market for these items work so can provide some insights.The bad side is the potential conflict of interests

 

In matters like these "Caesar’ s wife must not only be honest but must also be seen to be honest"

I really like Kiton shirts. They just seam more 'special' than those produced by other brands. Personally I love the wide, flat, almost amber-coloured buttons much more than thick, white ones more typically used.

I actually noticed that Brioni makes some shirts with all the same hand stitching details you see from Kiton.