Borelli or Brioni

Does anyone have any experience with Borelli MTM shirts? How do they compare to Brioni MTM shirts?

Borrelli shirts have more handwork than Brioni shirts

I have heard that Borrelli shirts take quite a while to come in and they have a high minimum order (6shirts?) and they are pricey as well. I would love confirmation on these issues though because they certainly have beautiful shirts.

The price points being similar, I would definitely opt for Borrelli.

koji

Originally Posted by dennisdomino

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I have heard that Borrelli shirts take quite a while to come in and they have a high minimum order (6shirts?) and they are pricey as well.

Yes, they take a while to come in (5 months for me) for their MTO shirts. No, they don't have a minimum order, at least at the US Borrelli boutiques. Yes, they are very pricey.

--Andre

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

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Yes, they take a while to come in (5 months for me) for their MTO shirts. No, they don't have a minimum order, at least at the US Borrelli boutiques. Yes, they are very pricey. --Andre
What exactly do you mean by "to come in"?

He means arrive from Italy. Borrelli's shirts are made in Italy and shipped to the U.S.

What is the price like? More than Kabbaz?

Kabbaz has a first-time 8 shirt minimum doesn't he?

(I was literally just looking at his site 30 seconds ago.. I can do 2-3 shirts at 600 bucks a pop .. but as a 25 year old, I'm not pulling 6 figures just yet and cannot justify 5k for shirts right now. )

I believe it's a six shirt minimum for Kabbaz.
I ordered a MTM shirt from Borrelli early May. It should arrive early July. Does it take an additional 3 months for an item to be shipped from Italy to the US? Strange.

Originally Posted by UR003

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I believe it's a six shirt minimum for Kabbaz.
I ordered a MTM shirt from Borrelli early May. It should arrive early July. Does it take an additional 3 months for an item to be shipped from Italy to the US? Strange.

My understanding from others who have ordered is that they are notoriously late with delivery. I hope this will not be the case with yours. It sounds like they let you just oder one shirt, which is good. When I did a Vacca MTM shist it was almost $500. I hope your Borrelli was far less.

Kronik - You might want to try contacting Alex directly to check into any wiggle room in his stated minimum. I seem to recall something he'd posted awhile back to the effect that - at his discretion and in the interest of building a long-term relationship with younger customers in areas such as business or law who might likely use his services for many years - he'll consider minimizing his basic order.

Borrelli delivery times can be very variable. In my order, one shirt came after 6 weeks, while the other took 5 months, and both were part of the same order. $400 to $500 is typical for a Borrelli shirt, but they are certainly better than the stuff that Vacca sells. I don't think it costs any more to do MTO (which is what Borrelli does, not even MTM) than to buy off the shelf.

I think the only reason to buy a Borrelli is that you like its style, and if it fits you. The construction quality is also highly variable and not that great, and the shirts are fragile. I also think hand-sewing is a gimmick.

At their prices, I'd rather look at custom shirts. It sounds like you're near New York City, so if you can't afford Kabbaz, you may want to look at CEGO (look for posts by Shirtmaven, the owner), or Paris or Geneva. CEGO will be the cheapest, with Geneva, then Paris following in increasing order of price. Ascot Chang is also another good alternative, though you have to be fairly strong about your styling preferences with them. The style of those shirts will be very different than Borrelli, but I think you'll be getting a much better shirt for better prices, and they may also be able to incorporate some of the Neopolitan styling cues. I have Geneva custom shirts (through Sulka) that are in better shape after 7 years of commercial laundering than some month-old Neopolitan shirts that have been babied.

--Andre

"you may want to look at CEGO" "The style of those shirts will be very different than Borrelli, but I think you'll be getting a much better shirt for better prices, and they may also be able to incorporate some of the Neopolitan styling cues"
--Andre

Thanks for the post Andre. I have been leaning towards heading to CEGO and in fact recently had a nice exchange with Carl on the forum about how much he can do in terms of custom work. For me part of the allure of Borrelli and some of the other Italians is the colors and the fabrics that they use. I used to go to Ascot Chang and you are right that they make a nice shirt, but while they had many books of fabrics, most of them were the same old "business" type shirt fabrics (meaning white, blue yellow, a stripe, a check,etc.). The other draw as you say are those "Neopolitan styling cues" that just make Italian shirts so special. What is it exactly that they do with their shirts they make them different?
DD

DD,

I also used to think Borrelli fabrics were special, but I no longer think so. Just have a look at some of the books at better custom makers, and you'll see all the variety and quality you'd want. I think the Borrelli product line is very well-edited so that they show you only the colors and patterns that fit the Borrelli look, but you will find similar if not exactly the same fabrics with any good custom maker, and they can be of much higher quality.

Things I'd consider off-the-rack Neopolitan cues include hand-sewn collars and sleeves, the crow's foot stitching on their buttons, the extra-thick buttons, the hand-sewn buttonholes, their elegant collar styles, the pitching of the sleeves (notice how the seam of the sleeve doesn't line up with the seam on the side of the shirt body), and the colors and fabric patterns. You can also order shirts with shirring or pleating at the sleevehead and where the yoke attaches to the back panel. I think the only things you wouldn't want to replicate in a custom shirt would be the hand sewing and the sleeve pitch which is more of fit issue.

--Andre