Essay: the making of fine custom shirts

[Alexander Kabbaz]

As we have all sadly discovered, the topic entitled "Kabbaz Shirts" is, as of 12/29/2003, broken. Page 1 is partially gone. Pages 9 and 10 have completely disappeared, and new posts don't post. Should anyone know how to fix it, that would be great as many posts have been lost. I promised many of you a treatise on the making of custom shirts which I did post previously. It was one of the ones which went away. I have taken the liberty of beginning a new topic solely for that purpose and to foster a dialogue of members other questions regarding shirtmaking. THE ESSAY ON SHIRTMAKING IS PROBABLY TOO LONG TO FIT WITH OTHER POSTS. AS SUGGESTED BY OTHER MEMBERS, I HAVE NOW POSTED IT ON A PRIVATE PAGE OF MY WEBSITE FOR FORUM/ANDY'S MEMBERS ONLY. HERE IS THE LINK: http://www.customshirt1.com/StyleForum_AskAndy01.htm Shirtmaking Article for Members Only The second article (Elapsed Time and Steps Required to Make a Custom Shirt) has now also been put up on my web site. Members may access it at Elapsed Time & Steps Required to Make A Shirt

 

[shoefan]

Mr. Kabbaz:

Thanks for the lengthy and very coherent discussion of your shirtmaking process and philosophy. While many may reject the value proposition which you offer and to which your clients subscribe, it is nice to understand why you have made the choices you have made. IMO, it is also encouraging that someone can make a living while pursuing the level of perfection and artistry to which you aspire. Of course, it helps to be marketing your services in the NYC area, which is a locus of great wealth, and to have an ability to market yourself and your products intelligently.

In your earlier posts you stated that your shirts require 8 hours of labor; you touched on part of this in your description of the sewing of the shirt hem and side seam. However, I would love to know where the other 7 hours are involved. [I assume your statement about labor hours excludes the labor involved in creating your initial trial shirts and is applicable to all finished shirts you sell after you have created the desired pattern -- this is the impression you created in the discussion of your economics.] I think the more you can educate people as to what goes into your shirts and why they cost what they cost, the more you may find new customers (assuming you want them); people don't mind paying for a quality product, what they tend to resist is feeling gouged.

 

[learydenis]

This is really getting to be ridiculous - first the Kabbaz shirts thread messed up, now Mr. Kabbaz's(very interesting, very detailed and probably very time-consuming to write) essay has done the same. Hopefully by some magic the problem will go away.
Steve, any idea?

 

[offshore observer]

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[aybojs]

In fairness, I think this the first time such a problem has occurred here, so it's not like to board is horribly buggy. My guess is just that the length of Mr. Kabbaz's write-up (thanks for taking the time, by the way), when combined with a full page of other posts, was too long for the software running the forum to handle, and as a result could not display the thread. Since the post initially worked, one possibility could be to have Mr. Kabbaz start a new thread and have Steve lock it to prevent any more posts from filling space, then pin it as a HOF post. Failing that, it might just be better to have Mr. Kabbaz post the article on his website and link to it, provided that he would be willing to do so.

 

[Carlo]

Mr. Kabbaz,

Thank you for sharing the information. It is nice to see old world craftsmanship and pride in workmanship - hell it is a relief

I would invite your comment about something I have been wrestling with a bit. In a custom shirt I can see the utility of a split yoke. Can you comment on why a split yoke would or would not improve the quality of a ready to wear shirt?

Again my compliments on your philosophy and commitment to keeping up the high end of the market... Nice to see that others out there think "subline" is a dirty word.

 

[masterfred]

Mr. Kabbaz, thanks so much for your time and input. Your two essays were very educational. I noticed your shirts seem to have the typical folded pleating on the sleeves; do you make shirts with the English-style, with small pleats surrounding the cuff, or is this not typically done anymore? (Except maybe at Turnbull, whose shirts I don't care for, in general)

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

A lengthy post here does not post as this topic is broken. If you have asked me a question, you will find the answer in the Custom Shirts topic.