Quote:
Originally Posted by
Achilles_ 
I have heard the new Borrelli shirts have plastic buttons

Quote:
Originally Posted by
steveoly 
Yep. I know that the decline of Borrelli shirts has been discussed on more than one occasion. Any way, over the past few years I have acquired Borrelli shirts of numerous different "levels" - the good old stock - nicer stitching, fat MOP buttons, pretty long sleeves, high construction quality overall. Then there was a "newer" stock which had the thinner MOP buttons. I am no expert with stitching or construction, but these looked OK, but still the feel a bit cheaper or machine made that the older shirts. Then even more recently, I acquired a Borrelli shirt with...plastic buttons. The stitching def. seems all machine done. But I do like the fit. I don't know what retail is on these new ones, but they're not near the quality of the shirts 3-4 years ago.
In all seriousness, I really doubt that they had plastic buttons.
All of the Borrelli shirts that I have seen over the past couple of years still have hand-stitched sleeveheads and the collar is still attached to the shirt by hand. The MoP buttons are thinner than in previous years but the buttons are still definitely, indubitably made of mother of pearl, no doubt at all.
Whilst I realise that a retailer can request that Borrelli make shirts of a particular level of finish, I don't think that Borrelli would make shirts with plastic buttons. As others have pointed out, at that level and with competition such as Finamore, Barba and so on, they just can't afford to have plastic buttons whilst the others have MoP.