How do you like your bespoke shirts?

I like to have a little room, so that after a few washings they still fit well.

What I ended up with Whittaker is:

- Full across the shoulders and chest, with one pleat each at the yoke by the shoulder blades

- Trim from the rib cage down through the waist, with darts in the back to bring the cut to a more pronounced contraction in the round from mid back to waist.

- A high armhole and trim arms...the first shirts, really, that work well with the stuff that I have from DeBoise.

If you know something about movement physiology, you might see that this somewhat matches planes of rotational mobility above and below the core. Basically, you should need less excess give at the waist since the job of the core is to keep you stable and to anchor movement above and below. Your chest, shoulders, and upper back, though, are in much more relative movement.

Obviously, this is not going to work for you if you are prone to an expanding belly. If you are, you might be wise to have a bit of extra there lest your shirt front pops out a button and puts out someone's eye.


- B

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

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Obviously, this is not going to work for you if you are prone to an expanding belly. If you are, you might be wise to have a bit of extra there lest your shirt front pops out a button and puts out someone's eye.

- B

Quite apt. There are indeed many on this Forum who believe that how well a shirt fits is in the eye of the beholder.

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Now that one is fit a little too closely.

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

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Full across the shoulders and chest, with one pleat each at the yoke by the shoulder blades
My shirts from Richard Anderson have pleats in this location ... but my earlier shirts by Bowring did not.

Now ... dawn has broken ... so I must go as promised and take the photos of the Bowring shirt (for another thread).

Edit: Oops ... I'm mistaken ... the Bowring has the same pleats.

When I asked Whittaker if I really needed them, he asked to move my arms up and then forward. Then he gave me a one word finding: "Yes."

That was that.

- B

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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it came to about $725 or so.

:faint:

Originally Posted by Eustace Tilley

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Perhaps I phrased my initial post poorly. Certainly the big ripples need to be fixed. I'm talking about having a bit of drape on the sides.

Ah - understood.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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Not 100% bespoke, but my Charvet MTM goes like this :

SP's Charvet is a terrific fitting shirt. But in ET's terminology, I would have assumed that it would qualify as 'no drape' on the sides, correct?

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

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What I ended up with Whittaker is:

- Full across the shoulders and chest, with one pleat each at the yoke by the shoulder blades

- Trim from the rib cage down through the waist, with darts in the back to bring the cut to a more pronounced contraction in the round from mid back to waist.

With all due respect to Whittaker, but I was under the impression that pleads and darts in the same shirt does not exactly illustrate the better bespoke shirt. Am happy to be corrected though.

Originally Posted by Douglas

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:faint:

Alot of that was getting nailed with a FedEx customs bill after delivery to the US.

Originally Posted by Lonneker

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SP's Charvet is a terrific fitting shirt. But in ET's terminology, I would have assumed that it would qualify as 'no drape' on the sides, correct?

I think any less drape and I would be confined to only forward and backward arm movements.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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Alot of that was getting nailed with a FedEx customs bill after delivery to the US.



I think any less drape and I would be confined to only forward and backward arm movements.

Do you think it is slightly tight though? It is a well fitting shirt on the picture, I wonder if you can comfortably move in it.

Originally Posted by forex

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Do you think it is slightly tight though? It is a well fitting shirt on the picture, I wonder if you can comfortably move in it.

Not in the least. It isnt tight anywhere.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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Thank you- and this is what the tailors at Charvet said as well. Both my wallet and I were appreciative of that consensus.



I picked a level 7 fabric (9 being silk, 8 being sea island cotton) so the cost was a little higher than a standard cotton, but it came to about $725 or so.

At that rate wouldn't it have been cheaper to go with bespoke for the shirt? I'm just looking into some MTM options and the cheapest I've found seems to be the 50-100 range with moderntailor, but there seems to be a lot of negativity directed towards them.

Not necessarily. I did my fitting on a one off visit to Paris and they require you to go back for a few fittings afterwards, which I could not do. After assessing my frame and fit, the SA and the tailor both agreed that for several reasons, it would be much better to go MTM.

Again, most of this cost was after the fact customs fees, and the fact that I picked an extraordinarily expensive fabric. I also bucked up another 60 bucks for a monogram but thats a longer story, found in its entirety here.

Originally Posted by deadly7

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At that rate wouldn't it have been cheaper to go with bespoke for the shirt? I'm just looking into some MTM options and the cheapest I've found seems to be the 50-100 range with moderntailor, but there seems to be a lot of negativity directed towards them.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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Not 100% bespoke, but my Charvet MTM goes like this :

I feel like I just got a lesson on how shirts are supposed to fit.

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

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Not necessarily. I did my fitting on a one off visit to Paris and they require you to go back for a few fittings afterwards, which I could not do. After assessing my frame and fit, the SA and the tailor both agreed that for several reasons, it would be much better to go MTM.

Again, most of this cost was after the fact customs fees, and the fact that I picked an extraordinarily expensive fabric. I also bucked up another 60 bucks for a monogram

but thats a longer story, found in its entirety here.

Blast you and your top-reply behavior. Have you had experience with other MTM's? How does/how would Charvet's lower-quality cottons compare to others?