- Joined
- Jul 14, 2013
- Messages
- 23
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi everyone. Long time lurker, figured I'd do a quick post as I just got some Indochino and Black Lapel shirts to start phasing out my Brooks Brothers collection. This is mostly going to be a comparison of my observations regarding the Indochino and the Black Lapel shirts. First, a picture:
Brooks Brothers:
I've been wearing Brooks Brothers for a very long time. I figured they are good quality, readily available, sales go on all the time, and they make for an easy to build wardrobe. My problem is that I have semi-broad shoulders and a small waist for a 6 foot tall guy. Even with their extra slim fit shirts, the waist is never slim enough, but when I get the extra slim fits, the shoulders are too narrow. I would also not usually wear a 15.5, but the 15 neck is too tight for me.
These are great shirts, I have many of them (25 or so?), but given that I'm ready to spend a bit more than in the past, we should go M2M, right? Turns out that M2M is the same price as the Brooks Brothers egyptian cotton shirts on sale. Even better.
Indochino:
I have to admit - these shirts almost got returned right out of the box.
Fit:
The shirt fits pretty well, but you might be able to see a similar gap around the next as with the Brooks Brothers shirt. I had ordered 15.25, and the shirt comes in exactly at 15.5 inches around the neck. The fit around the shoulders and arms are quite good, hitting right where they should at both the shoulder and the end of the arm. The waist is not bad, but not as good as the Black Lapel. They tapered the seam around the sides, so if you have the shirt laid out in front of you, you can actually see the seams come in from the armpit, and back out around the waist. The Brooks Brothers is basically a box cut. This tapering of the side seams is a bit awkward to me,and you can see that there is extra fabric at the waist compared to the Black Lapel, but less so than the Brooks Brothers.
Seams:
I'll add pictures of this later, but I like the seams better on the Indochino than the Black Lapel. The seams on the Indochino seem to be more carefully done and the actual stitching is perfect.
Black Lapel:
This is definitely the best fitting shirt of the 3.
Fit:
The neck was ordered at 15.25 and is actually 15.25. I'm not sure what went wrong with the Indochino, and I've decided that the extra .25 inch is something I've lived with for years with BB, so it will be fine - I don't feel like paying for the return shipping. With the BL shirt though, everything fits exactly the way it should. All measurements are perfect, the shoulders, sleeves, neck are all what I had ordered. Here's the difference with the waist compared with the Indochino. From what I can tell, the BL starts out as a box cut without any waist taper. They then go in after the fact and add darts to the back. I hardly noticed they were there to be honest. In my opinion, this creates a much better waist line than the Indochino does. Since the darts have all the fabric preserved, it also allows me to let out some fabric if I ever gain some weight. All in all, the Black Lapel shirt works out better than the Indochino, and I think vastly better than the Brooks Brothers.
Seams:
I have to admit - I saw one place on the BL shirt where there was some errant stitching. The quality of the seams and the tightness of the stitching is quite similar to the BB and Indochino, but I'd give BB the top score, Indochino a close second, and BL a very close third. It's almost a 3 way tie if you really want to know.
Other notes:
That's it for now. I might add content to the reviews as I think of other things to say.
I am curious about what you guys think of the Indochino collar though. Let me know what you think through the survey. Thanks!!!
Brooks Brothers:
I've been wearing Brooks Brothers for a very long time. I figured they are good quality, readily available, sales go on all the time, and they make for an easy to build wardrobe. My problem is that I have semi-broad shoulders and a small waist for a 6 foot tall guy. Even with their extra slim fit shirts, the waist is never slim enough, but when I get the extra slim fits, the shoulders are too narrow. I would also not usually wear a 15.5, but the 15 neck is too tight for me.
These are great shirts, I have many of them (25 or so?), but given that I'm ready to spend a bit more than in the past, we should go M2M, right? Turns out that M2M is the same price as the Brooks Brothers egyptian cotton shirts on sale. Even better.
Indochino:
I have to admit - these shirts almost got returned right out of the box.
Fit:
The shirt fits pretty well, but you might be able to see a similar gap around the next as with the Brooks Brothers shirt. I had ordered 15.25, and the shirt comes in exactly at 15.5 inches around the neck. The fit around the shoulders and arms are quite good, hitting right where they should at both the shoulder and the end of the arm. The waist is not bad, but not as good as the Black Lapel. They tapered the seam around the sides, so if you have the shirt laid out in front of you, you can actually see the seams come in from the armpit, and back out around the waist. The Brooks Brothers is basically a box cut. This tapering of the side seams is a bit awkward to me,and you can see that there is extra fabric at the waist compared to the Black Lapel, but less so than the Brooks Brothers.
Seams:
I'll add pictures of this later, but I like the seams better on the Indochino than the Black Lapel. The seams on the Indochino seem to be more carefully done and the actual stitching is perfect.
Black Lapel:
This is definitely the best fitting shirt of the 3.
Fit:
The neck was ordered at 15.25 and is actually 15.25. I'm not sure what went wrong with the Indochino, and I've decided that the extra .25 inch is something I've lived with for years with BB, so it will be fine - I don't feel like paying for the return shipping. With the BL shirt though, everything fits exactly the way it should. All measurements are perfect, the shoulders, sleeves, neck are all what I had ordered. Here's the difference with the waist compared with the Indochino. From what I can tell, the BL starts out as a box cut without any waist taper. They then go in after the fact and add darts to the back. I hardly noticed they were there to be honest. In my opinion, this creates a much better waist line than the Indochino does. Since the darts have all the fabric preserved, it also allows me to let out some fabric if I ever gain some weight. All in all, the Black Lapel shirt works out better than the Indochino, and I think vastly better than the Brooks Brothers.
Seams:
I have to admit - I saw one place on the BL shirt where there was some errant stitching. The quality of the seams and the tightness of the stitching is quite similar to the BB and Indochino, but I'd give BB the top score, Indochino a close second, and BL a very close third. It's almost a 3 way tie if you really want to know.
Other notes:
- Black Lapel and Indochino were ordered at the same time and with the exact same measurements. I did the orders with both for the sake of comparing the two.
- Indochino is slightly less expensive. I think it's $240 for a 3 shirt package versus $100 per shirt. You can check their websites.
- The french cuff indochino shirts won't fit my woven cufflinks through them. A regular Thomas Pink cufflink struggled to get through the cuff first time around. No issues with the BL.
That's it for now. I might add content to the reviews as I think of other things to say.
I am curious about what you guys think of the Indochino collar though. Let me know what you think through the survey. Thanks!!!
