raley
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2004
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In my quest for the perfectly fitted shirt (between Jantzen iterations, that is), I decided to pay Ram Keswani of mytailor.com a visit today in the Westin Galleria Hotel here in Houston.
I called on Thursday and made an appointment for his first day in town, Saturday. The fabric selection was good. Mr. Keswani told me there was a 4 shirt minimum. While making my appointment, I indicated I wanted 1 or 2 shirts made, so I was concerned about this. He told me that he was a salesman (I though he was a tailor?) and that his business was to satisfy customers. He gave me a "special deal" for 4 shirts at $300. I said ok and picked out a blue herringbone, a pink herringbone, a 1/2" blue on white check, and a thick white stripe on blue.
He took my measurements and showed me how he would change the shirt I was wearing. I told him I wanted it very trim, but he told me he would not make it this way because I was not used to wearing trim shirts. He also told me he would make the sleeves 1/2" long because I was not used to perfectly-fitting sleeves. I gave into his sleeves, but insisted on a trim shirt. He wasn't very vocal during the measurement process - I had to specify the length I wanted.
The other choices I was given were cuffs, collar, pleat style, monogram, and pocket.
I was concerned about the shape of the collar, but since all he had were pictures from the webpage (printed in black and white), I just went with a normal spread.
I picked side pleats and asked for a split yoke. He had no idea with a split yoke was. I tried explaining, and showed him the split yoke on my shirt, but he still was confused. I told him to forget about the split yoke.
I asked for a monogram inside the yoke. He was confused and said that the only options were on the chest and cuff. I passed on the monogram.
I was not asked about the more specific options that are present on the Jantzen order form, such as the stitching of the collar, the type of bottom on the shirt, the type of placket, the length of the cuff, etc.
Next, I inspected the buttons on the sample shirt. He said they were MOP when I asked, but I was sure they were plastic (I even did the bite test). He told me he has been in the business for 36 years and he “knows what good buttons are.” I asked him about the option on the web order form for 4.0mm thick Australian MOP buttons, but he did not know what I was talking about and had no other button samples.
After this, he proceeded to tell me that he did not think I would be satisfied with the shirts that he was going to make me. He told me that he was a good shirtmaker and that all of his customers are very satisfied with what they receive. It might have been an issue with English as a second language for him, but his response implied that I was an impossible-to-work-with customer – a bad customer. He refused to sell me the shirts at this point. We exchanged goodbyes and I was on my way.
I am a bit perplexed by this result. I feel like I was using my experience from SF and previous Jantzen orders to form a specific description of what I wanted in a shirt - both in terms of fit and stylistically (cuff length, collar style, shirt length, monogram, etc.). I didn't feel at any time like I was being pushy. I only felt like I was guiding the process, which I feel like I should be doing, since it is my shirt. I wasn't making any far out suggestions that would look bad that he was advising me against, rather, everything I was asking for was (seemed) quite reasonable.
In any event, I hope this "review" will help some people know what to expect if they attend a mytailor.com fitting. Luckily Carl from CEGO recommended some other Houston tailors, so maybe I lucked out and will get great shirts if I decide to try them.
I called on Thursday and made an appointment for his first day in town, Saturday. The fabric selection was good. Mr. Keswani told me there was a 4 shirt minimum. While making my appointment, I indicated I wanted 1 or 2 shirts made, so I was concerned about this. He told me that he was a salesman (I though he was a tailor?) and that his business was to satisfy customers. He gave me a "special deal" for 4 shirts at $300. I said ok and picked out a blue herringbone, a pink herringbone, a 1/2" blue on white check, and a thick white stripe on blue.
He took my measurements and showed me how he would change the shirt I was wearing. I told him I wanted it very trim, but he told me he would not make it this way because I was not used to wearing trim shirts. He also told me he would make the sleeves 1/2" long because I was not used to perfectly-fitting sleeves. I gave into his sleeves, but insisted on a trim shirt. He wasn't very vocal during the measurement process - I had to specify the length I wanted.
The other choices I was given were cuffs, collar, pleat style, monogram, and pocket.
I was concerned about the shape of the collar, but since all he had were pictures from the webpage (printed in black and white), I just went with a normal spread.
I picked side pleats and asked for a split yoke. He had no idea with a split yoke was. I tried explaining, and showed him the split yoke on my shirt, but he still was confused. I told him to forget about the split yoke.
I asked for a monogram inside the yoke. He was confused and said that the only options were on the chest and cuff. I passed on the monogram.
I was not asked about the more specific options that are present on the Jantzen order form, such as the stitching of the collar, the type of bottom on the shirt, the type of placket, the length of the cuff, etc.
Next, I inspected the buttons on the sample shirt. He said they were MOP when I asked, but I was sure they were plastic (I even did the bite test). He told me he has been in the business for 36 years and he “knows what good buttons are.” I asked him about the option on the web order form for 4.0mm thick Australian MOP buttons, but he did not know what I was talking about and had no other button samples.
After this, he proceeded to tell me that he did not think I would be satisfied with the shirts that he was going to make me. He told me that he was a good shirtmaker and that all of his customers are very satisfied with what they receive. It might have been an issue with English as a second language for him, but his response implied that I was an impossible-to-work-with customer – a bad customer. He refused to sell me the shirts at this point. We exchanged goodbyes and I was on my way.
I am a bit perplexed by this result. I feel like I was using my experience from SF and previous Jantzen orders to form a specific description of what I wanted in a shirt - both in terms of fit and stylistically (cuff length, collar style, shirt length, monogram, etc.). I didn't feel at any time like I was being pushy. I only felt like I was guiding the process, which I feel like I should be doing, since it is my shirt. I wasn't making any far out suggestions that would look bad that he was advising me against, rather, everything I was asking for was (seemed) quite reasonable.
In any event, I hope this "review" will help some people know what to expect if they attend a mytailor.com fitting. Luckily Carl from CEGO recommended some other Houston tailors, so maybe I lucked out and will get great shirts if I decide to try them.
