Aussie members - Dress Shirts?

The answer to your problem is easy: Charles Nakhle bespoke. He easily makes the best bespoke shirt in Sydney. 69 Phillip St Parramatta 2150 (02) 9633 4696 Because he is located out of the CBD his prices are also much lower, starting at around the $200 mark. He stocks a huge range of exceptional fabrics from England, Italy and Switzerland. You will be spoilt for choice and anything else will become totally unwearable afterwards. His margins are ridiculously low but he refuses to compromise on quality and construction. I (and several others here) prefer them over $600+ shirts from the likes of Borrelli, Kiton, Brioni etc (whether MTM or RTW) in terms of fit, construction and fabric. ps what do you mean by a non-business 'dress' shirt? Do you mean for black tie? Whatever you have in mind - casual, business, formal dress shirtings - Charles will have it all. Of course, because it is bespoke it is guaranteed to fit you perfectly.

And when you consider the likes of Herringbone, SABA and Calibre will charge you $150 for OTR which will still require alterations, Sator's suggestion becomes a no-brainer.

I second Sator's suggestion. Having had quite a few shirts from Charles myself ranging from a casual one to a marcela shirt, I don't think you can easily find anything better within Australia compared with his offering.

Take a read of these tutorials on bespoke shirtings from Alex Kabbaz before you go to Charles:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/T...irtFabrics.htm

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/T...hirtMaking.htm

They can also be found as archival threads in SF. I have seen many of the exact same shirtings in Alex's tutorial in Charles' store. In other words he offers the same shirtings as you can get in an $800 USD shirt for a fraction of the price. But Charles' shirts are already at a point of diminishing return, so that Alex charges a lot more for things which are increasingly subtle. In fact, Charles and Alex are old countrymen and colleagues. As fate would have it one of them ended up in NYC and the other in Sydney. New Yorkers are willing and able to pay $800 USD for a shirt or $2500 for a pair of shoes. Aussies being a daggier breed, you'd go broke if you tried that here, so the final product ends up commanding a rather meagre street price.

SKin Deep also makes shirts as do Rochefort - both in Elizabeth St near Park - around AUD200- 220.

My question who is the best shoe repairer in the city?

Does he do suits also, will be looking for a tailor soon as having been trying to find a decent suit off the rack and had no luck.

There are customers of Charles' I know who still swear by him after trying all of these, Borrelli MTM, John Cutler, Hemden, and even Charvet in Paris. None of the CBD shirtmakers make a particularly good shirt and they are virtually all MTM rather than bespoke. Rochefort certainly isn't bespoke - his speciality is ties. I have even met one recently retired CBD shirtmaker who says that Charles makes a much more high end shirt, and that he is crazy not to move into the CBD where he could easily command prices in the $+300 bracket.

I'd go the bespoke options as mentioned above.


Quality is not the issue with Ben Sherman - more that a particular demographic on the right side of thinking and wearing braces tend to like wearing Ben Shermans. Lets just say no more on that.

What's the difference in Australia?

Just turn up. Easy. No appointment needed. Pink striped shirting? Charles has more than you can poke a stick at.

There are a couple of Aussie shoes threads - try the search engine. Check out my RM Williams thread too.

Just to explain a bit of local culture. This is the uniform Aussie attire:



I am afraid that in Oz anything with sleeves (extraordinary), or even buttons (wow) is generally regarded as having a similar level of formality to a tail coat and top hat.

Er, I think that's a tad harsh. Maybe in Sydney. In Melbourne he would be wearing all black, no grey.

AEs can be found at Peter Sheppard's if they have a Sydney outlet. The best thing is to go in there, get a clear idea of your size, then go buy on the net.