Bespoke shirtmakers in London?

[E TF]

How often would you be visiting London? It is not a simple process when you take distance into account.

There's no reason to think I will be traveling to london for work anytime soon (though it could happen), so in all likelihood my visiting london will be the occasional trip for the sake of shopping and seeing friends. So once every 6 months maybe? But if I need to go, it's not particularly difficult as I have a place to stay there and it's only one and a half hours on the plane, but I'd prefer it if it was possible to do this with an initial visit and then the rest done over the phone or sending pictures/videos of fit electronically.

I suppose this might be a reason to go for "just" MTM as opposed to bespoke, as the geographical hindrance means I might not be able to do enough fittings to get my money's worth with bespoke. Or would I?

I think most london shirtmakers start with one test shirt that they make after taking your initial set of measurements. They then ask you to wear and wash it a few times, then go back with it for a fitting to see how it looks. Any adjustments required are then made, and with a bit of luck no further fittings are needed. So you could get your measurements taken at your next trip to london, have them post you the trial shirt when it's ready, wear it a few times, then take it back with you for a fitting the next time you visit London. You should then be good to order as many as you like remotely afterwards, unless you change shape...

So I'd say two trips to London minimum to get the best out of going bespoke.

 

[Macallan]

It could easily go the other direction and the person needing 4 visits, which would make the whole process 2 years long.
Then he can select the cloth for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc shirts - if they do not need to be altered, 4 shirts could take 2.5 years

 

[E TF]

True. I was describing the best case scenario - should have made that clearer.

I have tried three London shirtmakers myself: two got it right with one fitting (i.e. 2 visits, though there have been subsequent tweaks over time); one took about four (and nearly a year - and I visit london much more often than the op).