MTM Shirt Makers -- Want to try two on my trip to Manhattan

[jeffsf]

The short:

I'm traveling to Manhattan next week and would like to get measured at and order a couple "basic" dress shirts to replace my outdated and ill-fitting OTR ones. I'm new to Style Forum, coming here sort of backwards, after finding Kent Wang and his trunk show this past weekend in San Francisco (and ordering a suit and shirt through him).

I'm looking in what some might consider a "modest" price range, $75-150, probably ending up at the higher end of that range, based on my unfortunate gravitation toward more interesting fabrics.

My searches have turned up Kamakura Shirts and Proper Cloth after wading through many non-Style Forum sources.

I'd appreciate any constructive comments or suggestions. (Namely, "they suck" as a two-word comment doesn't help me much.)


The long:

I'm around 5' 8" and my "runner's body" has drifted up from the low 130s to the high 130s as I crossed into my 50s. I wear something like a 15/33 on OTR, but they generally have a good 4-6" of extra fabric in the girth.

I wear casual clothing on a day-to-day basis, in a Silicon Valley engineering setting, so I don't have any "adult, style models" at hand. I do travel on business and meet with C-level staff. Those trips are either one- or two-day quick-turn trips, or extended travel in Europe. Three meeting days a week on those extended trips are typically the most I have. So I'm looking for three shirts to start. As you might imagine, I generally don't wear out suits.

I'm about 20 years too old for "The GQ look" but definitely want something that I'm comfortable in, but as far as fit goes, as well as has a bit of life to it. Plain white shirts and stripe ties just have never been me. If Jhane Barnes were still making shirts, I'd still be buying them.

I've generally worn Canali suits and used to have a great boutique/tailor that I worked with here locally, but they are no longer what they were, if they still exist. I've been admonished about "No brown around town" in London, so am reevaluating my suits in light of that, as well with regard to the narrowing of lapels that have come about in the 10-15 years since I bought them.

London was pretty much a failure for shopping last month. While Paul Smith has some great stuff for casual wear, the skinny boy-Brit look isn't really me. Thomas Pink was equally disappointing, between conservative shirts that didn't fit, and out-sourcing their tie fabrication. The did have a blue/red dupioni with yellow dots I liked, but I'm glad I didn't buy it, now having seen the Sam Hober site and what it offers at a bargain in comparison.

I've got a Kent Wang MTM coming (though not in time for this trip) in a dark grey nailhead.

I've tried Taylor Stitch here in San Francisco (Mel Gambert fabricates for them) for a tattersal casual shirt, and it was great fabric, but I wasn't impressed with the attention to detail. Maybe I'm pickier than most as I've done my own sewing over the years, but the felled seams on the sleeves weren't symmetric arm-to-arm. Still, a decent shirt, but not one that has me excited to return for a $225-250 test run on a dress shirt.

So far, for (new) shirts, I've got a blue cotton/linen, French cuff on order from Kent Wang.

I'm thinking of trying two more to see if I can find "my" shirtmaker as I need to augment/replace over then next ten years or so. My thoughts are blue micro-check or micro-stripe, and perhaps a lavender or pink (though pink still scares me). I'll probably go with French cuffs, given that these aren't likely to be worn in a non-serious setting.


The current pick:

Kamakura Shirts seemed interesting to me as they might actually have something OTR that fits me well enough at an under-$100 price point.

Proper Cloth seems to have a wide range of fabrics on their site, a professional site, and reasonable prices. I'm looking at, for example the Cancilini fabrics at around $135.


I'm definitely open to suggestions, especially when opinions are well supported.

I've found http://www.styleforum.net/t/391820/best-deal-on-mtm-shirts-in-nyc as well as the (somewhat dated) link there to the Ask Andy thread (please forgive me if I have violated some unwritten rule about not mentioning the other forum). I see that Proper Cloth is an affiliate, but don't know if that means anything more than they are a purveyor and have registered as such to clarify personal opinion/experience from promotional activity.


For any of you that made it this far, thank you so much. Thanks to even those that didn't!

 

[jeffsf]

Well, nobody helped out, so I'm hoping this helps the next person.

What I visited, from worst to best, at least in my opinion

Indochino - Unacceptable

Unacceptable workmanship, especially at the prices charged. Looking at the shirts on display, I was struck by the inconsistent stitching, with wavering deviations of a couple mm off the intended line evident on most of the pieces.


Proper Cloth - Marginally acceptable

Poor workmanship, decent to good fabrics. Looking at the samples on display, I wasn't thrilled, but the stitching and general finish was a step up from Indochino. There was still a lot to be desired where things mattered, but more of "that's too bad" rather than "H&M has better workmanship than this crap." A customer when I was in there was showing his disappointment about a yoke that had the stitching line both too far from the seam, as well as being inconsistent.

Even if you go in to get your measurements taken, they'll literally just enter them into the website for you.

Their fabrics range from plebeian (~$120) through good, with a nice, Cancilini-fabric shirt around $180 -- which, combined with a made to measure approach, is what pushed them back to "marginally acceptable."


Kamakura Shirts -- Stop here if you are in New York, period.

The first time an off-the-rack shirt has fit me. At $79 (and a lot less, if you're in Japan), these shirts are a steal. They are decent, but not high-end fabrics. For an everyday business shirt or button-down, you'll be hard pressed to find something of comparable quality. The stitching is spot on and I didn't find any annoying lapses in workmanship.


Fabric selection seems to be "phase of the moon" as to availability, but you've got more choices if you'll consider cutaway and button-down collars.

At $79, these blow Proper Cloth's low-end fabric shirts out of the water, assuming that one of the four Kamakura fits works for you.


CEGO -- Clear winner, even at the price

What can I say? For not much more than the $180 Proper Cloth will charge for a mid-grade, made-to-measure shirt, you get a fantastic quality, patterned-to-you shirt. The workmanship is outstanding, the fit is spot on, and the details I chose make me smile. French cuffs that are a little shorter than standard to keep in scale with my relatively narrow wrists. No (in my opinion) useless sleeve placket buttons. Oh, and buttons that hold up through the most vicious of same-day shirt laundries.

The pattern maker is right there in the New York office. This isn't made-to-measure, this is made to fit you. That includes your own personal asymmetries, which no set of measurements on a website are ever going to catch.

Carl will tell you if a piece of fabric doesn't look good on you (he's got hundreds there, ready to go, so you're looking at a piece off the bolt, not a tiny sample). You can consider that a plus of a minus. He will make you something that he thinks looks atrocious, or will soon look "oh, soooo 2014", but he'll be clear about his opinion.



Between CEGO and Kamakura, I know where I'll be stopping each time I visit New York!