Meinelt Fashion Shirt Review

[odoreater]

I while back when the first Meinelt Fashion thread came up I ordered a shirt from them, so here is my amateur review of the shirt.

Customer Service and Ordering: The ordering process went really well and there customer service is pretty great. They answer e-mails relatively quickly (usually within a few hours) and there is even a live chat feature on their webpage (which I didn't try to use). The order form is pretty simple, and it's pretty cool because you can even upload a picture of yourself right to the website, which other sites don't seem to have. Grade: A

Fit: I measured myself and the fit is pretty good. I used the same measurements that I use on almost all of the other websites. I also asked for high armholes, which they did and the shirt feels great. The collar is a little bit tighter than most other shirts that I've ordered with the same collar style. Grade: B/B+

Fabric: The fabric that I ordered was the "100% Italian Cotton." The feel of the fabric is rougher than my Chan shirts (which are 2/100s) and therefore the shirt doesn't "drape" as well and looks kind of stiff. This leads me to believe that the fabric isn't that great, which is the reason for the low price. However, given the low price, you can't really expect super high quality fabric. Grade: C+ (not considering price), B+ (considering price).

Buttons: As you may recall, I asked them for MOP buttons and they said that they don't have them and they will be using "Pearl Buttons." The buttons are a bright white color (whiter than MOP) and have a "marble" kind of look to them (that's the best way I can describe it). I don't really know what I got, but I know that it's not nearly as good as MOP. Grade: C

Construction: The construction is pretty good. It has single needle stitching (about 16 stitches per inch). The collar is nice, it has a stiffer feel to it, but it's not cardboardy or anything. The pattern matching is pretty good. They matched the pattern on the yoke with the sleeve (and they did a pretty good job considering I got a small check pattern). Also, the pattern matching is pretty good on the front placket and the sleeve placket. Grade: A.

Overall: I'm pretty satisfied overall considering the price. I definitely think I'm going to order a couple more shirts from them as my "workhorse" shirts. This is the type of shirt that you wear when you know that you might need to roll your sleeves up and do some nitty-gritty (it'd be perfect to wear while doing document review). Overall: B+ considering the price.

 

[trogdor]

You may run the risk of being "deconstructed", but any chance of some pictures?

Ooh, and sorry to be vulgar, but what are the prices too? Their website doesn't seem to want to tell me.

 

[odoreater]

You may run the risk of being "deconstructed", but any chance of some pictures?

I don't own a digital camera and I'm in the middle of finals right now, but I might be able to borrow a digital camera and post some pictures next week.

As for being "deconstructed," it doesn't really bother me. Maybe some of these shirts don't fit 100% perfectly or whatever, but they sure as hell fit better than any RTW shirt, and in the real world, only someone truly anal would ever say to you "Gee, that shoulder looks like it could be a 1/4 inch smaller). Any criticism is actually welcome because it helps on the next order (a month or so ago I posted a picture of myself wearing a WW Chan shirt and I was able to incorporate the criticism to get much better fitting shirts the second time around).

 

[briancl]

what led you to order the italian cotton? a pattern that you liked or do you think it is their best cotton? maybe their egyptian is better? i cant tell one way or the other from their website...

also, the chan 100/2 is a very nice fabric that costs nearly twice as much as the meinelt fabric. do you think that maybe the meinelt fabric would be closer in comparison to a chan single ply cotton of roughly similar price? or if you don't have a single ply chan fabric to for comparison, what else do you have that you could consider similar quality?

sorry for the 20 questions, but i am close to ordering from meinelt, and i dont hearing their fabric being described as 'stiff'.

thanks
brian

 

[odoreater]

what led you to order the italian cotton?  a pattern that you liked or do you think it is their best cotton?  maybe their egyptian is better?  i cant tell one way or the other from their website...

also, the chan 100/2 is a very nice fabric that costs nearly twice as much as the meinelt fabric.  do you think that maybe the meinelt fabric would be closer in comparison to a chan single ply cotton of roughly similar price?  or if you don't have a single ply chan fabric to for comparison, what else do you have that you could consider similar quality?

sorry for the 20 questions, but i am close to ordering from meinelt, and i dont hearing their fabric being described as 'stiff'.

thanks
brian

Let me take this step by step, it's easier that way:

1. I ordered the Italian cotton because I figured it was their best fabric (only because the Egyptian is a little cheaper), but I wouldn't be opposed to ordering the Egyptian either. Actually, I think the next few shirts I order are going to be in the Egyptian solid colors.

2. I don't have any Chan single-ply so I can't really compare it to that. It's actually not even as soft as my Hemrajani shirts, which are 2/80s. I'm not really an expert or anything, so I can't really try to make an estimate about what the fabric is. It may be 1-ply, I don't really know. Maybe you could e-mail them or go on the online chat and ask them for more specific information about the fabric.

3. I think that for the price this is a pretty good shirt. In the past I've spent the same amount of money on shirts made of similar material from Macys that didn't fit as well.

You're pretty much getting what you pay for. Jantzen charges a low price, but they have horrible customer service and it's a crapshoot whether you'll even get shirts, and even if you do it'll take months. Meinelt charges a lower price because their fabrics aren't as good, but at least you'll get them with all the details that you want in a reasonably short period of time.

 

[bachbeet]

I ordered a shirt from ravistailor.com and it was quite good for the price. It does take a while but it wasn't like I needed it right away.

Yet, I still find the shirts from forzieri and Tyrwhitt are more to my liking. And, I think Carlo Franco has some really nice ones too. I'm going to buy one of his and at least one of his ties when the new shirts come in. It may take a while to fit my sleeve length, but I'll wait.

 

[Shirtmaven]

With the state of the Euro, A 50/1 single ply Italian fabric could cost more then 100/2 egyptian cotton from Asia. Carl www.cego.com