The OneShirt: A Phoenix from the Ashes [4/24/13 UPDATE: A SHIRTMAKER, AN ENGLISHMAN, CHAMBRAY,... - Page 16

You know that you don't actually have to go in between the buttons, right? I had to iron my shirts myself when I was in university, and it took bloody long until I decided to go see how salespeople were doing it. They just flip the shirt around, and iron and steam the shirt from the inside, over the buttons. One pass if you have a good iron, a couple otherwise.

Yeah I know but it doesn't always come out right. Sometimes the placket gets creased.

Actually, I've checked my shirts again, and most of the fraying is not visible (confined to the bottom inside edge of the shirt, where the buttons line the shirt-front). However, if in fact Riva mostly weaves 170 or 180/2 fabrics, it makes perfect sense that these will fray faster than the heavier, 120/2 fabrics, which I use. Does not mean anything with regards to quality, but a finer shirt will disintegrate faster.

So no, I don't think it's a big deal either.

Just comes down to what you prefer.

I guess I'm fortunate that we in Sydney have Charles Nakhle. a respected, world-class shirtmaker whose pricing structure is extremely reasonable ($265AUD for a shirt in SIC Tess 120/2 fabric; and I think the most he charges is about $300-$350AUD for finer fabric).

I just found this thread and haven't ploughed through it, so my comments may
be redundant. I do recall that you were purchasing (and documenting) Anna
Matuozzo bespoke hand made shirts several years ago. At the time I was
very impressed, but remembered my alterations tailor in Chicgao, who
had been chief tailor at Ultimo, saying that hand stitched garments- Oxxford
specifically, tended to come apart. So it turns out that they are not coming apart
but fraying. I have worn T &A shirts, not exclusively, for over thirty years. They
are RTW. They have never frayed. It is true that I do not wear dress shirts regularly
anymore, but I have some T&As which 10-15 years old and are wearable.
They have been laundered by the local high-end laundries. T &A and H&K
(which I also wear) have bespoke operations. You might wish to check
them out.

I pretty much always get a placket. But my first custom shirts, made in Zamboanga in 1997, had plain fronts. They were modeled after my favorite shirts from the 80's and 90's: those Perry Ellis ones with pleats at the shoulder. I kept all details the same, except for asking them to sew up the bottom two-three inches of the folded fabric on the fronts. That created hidden pockets where I'd slip a couple cards and money if I was traveling through rough areas.

A few years ago, I found one of those shirts and thought of getting some shirts made w/ the same fronts. Parker suggested I stick w/ plackets since, I believe, he thought they were more supportive. So I have.

ps: fwiw, I'm w/ Foo on the lack of gauntlet buttons. I think I'm against on all the other details though.
I agree w/ this for shirts worn w/ ties, but really casual shirts, like camp shirts, often have no/french plackets.

And I think something similar is true about spread collars. We tend to think of spread collars as "dressy," but very casual shirts not intended to be worn w/ ties often have spread collars. I'm thinking of chambray or denim work shirts. I have old ones from LL Bean and Wrangler, for example that have a nice, moderate spread collars. I now prefer all of my dress shirts to have unlined collars, whether spread or buttondown. Both look great w/ or w/o a tie imo. The key, imo, to having dress, spread-collared shirts look good w/o a tie is to have soft, floppy collars.

Matt,

It makes absolutely no difference how long you have had the Riva shirts if after 20 washes yours were fraying and the rest of us only start noticing some discolouration after 60 -80 washes. BTW, my family has been buying shirting and socks at Buonanno in Naples for longer that you had a PC, and Buonanno sells virtually esclusivly Riva (and Sozzi socks ), and if the shirting were so fragile as you imply we would have stopped long ago. My most recent shirts in rotation go back max 3 years, but I never worn shirt with any fraying visible at all, as I get rid of them usually before for other reasons. Re-reading your comments on "points"(angles points) fraying first, it just occurred to me that the way AM construct and/or turn those points may be the source of the problem after all ... Food for thoughts...

 

They're unfastened in those pics, but anyways, I think you're right. That's why I always use my convertible cuffs as barrel cuffs (and if I was ordering a custom shirt it would never come with single / convertible cuffs)

no placket is the mark of a gigolo

I thought single cuffs were pretty popular in Italy - perhaps even more so than double cuffs (at least for those not buying otr shirts). This loke should help you completely transform, once and for all, into an Italian if nothing else....

Oddly, all my cuffs were single cuffs back in 1998 or so, as the MTM shirt guy I used really loved them. Some were made with a fabric tab of some sort that eliminated the need for links, though I never got those myself. I did a kind of "one shirt" back then with end-on-end fabric (don't know the proper name). Anyway, I found my single cuffs all frayed very quickly at the square edge of the cuff, though the end-on-end seems to universally wear very quickly. So maybe it was the fabric, but I suspect it was really the consequence of having a squared cuff edge hanging out. There instead of being "protected" in a barrel.

I am not in Italy as often as some, but I don't see link cuffs of either kind there very much. The vast majority are wearing buttons. I asked the guys at Battistoni about this once and they said that in Italy FC was for weddings and such, most men had one such shirt and rarely wore it. They said that they make lots of FC shirts for Americans but very few for Italians.

As I said I would not have gone all riva, and I personally do not do it as shirt/fabric combo needs to be different for each intended use IMO.

The problem with your commentary,as many other have noted even not being from Naples, is that you make it sound as absolute truths, when clearly is your view based on only YOUR LIMITED experience or particular situation, as was your commentary on the Sartorial London thread, e.g. generalising everything after a limited visit. Me and other family members have had shirt made by several shirtmakers over the years, in Riva and other fabrics. Clearly Riva is a more refined shirting at 180/2 then a 120/2 or less, and we have always threated as such, as we would not want all our suiting in 100% cashmere . Still your shirt lifespan does not seem to be the norm.

The really funny things, is that you go from one extreme to another, riva best to riva worst ever, AM best shirtmaker in the world to be worth the price, to not be worth the price anymore and then recently also talking about the real reason being service and/or honesty.

In any case this is a forum, you post about your experience, expertise and knowledge and other do the same to offer possibly to other readers amore balanced view rather then the Mafoofan ONE truth. BTW I am not saying you are lying about your shirts, why would you, but your experience with the one shirting/shirtmaking combo may not be all due to the shirting faults...

Sorry for typos. Typing on telephone waiting for boat to come around (because this is such a vital topic /sarcasm). By the way, just to hijack this thread, I'm about to be the fourth crew member in this: