PSA: CottonWorks now sucks

[JohnnyCrockett]

Originally Posted by sellahi22

I would heartily recommend Hemrajani/mytailor. Joe really takes pride in his shirts and strives to put out a product equal to the high end bespoke firms. If you talk to him, it's clear that he closely follows the online discussions and knows what other shirtmakers are doing and what informed customers want.

He makes individual patterns and if you see him personally, he goes all-out with dozens of measurements, photos, posture analysis, trying on sample shirts, etc. Thick MOP buttons, soft swiss interlining unfused collars/cufs, and pattern matching are std, and hand sewn arm attachments and borrelli buttons are a small upcharge. Fabrics are Thomas Mason, DJA, and Grandi & Rubinelli and prices are very competitive (CMT - $100, TM goldline - $200, DJA 170s - $240, DJA 200s - $280, DJA sea island - $300).

The one draw back is turnaround - 4-8 weeks depending on time of year.

The firm is like the WW Chan of shirts, with the other HK sites being analogous to the HK tourist hustler suit shops. As with Chan, there are lots of pics online of crap shirts coming from Hemrajani. I think this is due to a combo of (a) doing measurements online or with a fitter other than Joe, (b) choosing crap fabrics, or (c) not giving them clear direction on what kind of fit/styling you want.

Will from ASW uses him as well and you can read more about the firm and the process on his blog.

+1000

Joe is fantastic. I have more than 20 shirts from him and have never been less than thoroughly impressed with quality, fit, attentiveness to detail, customer service, and fabric selection.

 

[CousinDonuts]

I ordered 3 CW shirts on June 15. My first two orders (circa last August and November) were shipped in about a week. Since my status was still 'production' on July 5 I emailed to get an ETA. They apologized for the delay but did not quote a reason. They offered to upgrade my shipping.

I ordered 2 plain colored shirts and one gingham. I'll report back how the pattern matched on that one.

 

[Odd I/O]

Originally Posted by sellahi22

He makes individual patterns and if you see him personally, he goes all-out with dozens of measurements, photos, posture analysis, trying on sample shirts, etc. Thick MOP buttons, soft swiss interlining unfused collars/cufs, and pattern matching are std, and hand sewn arm attachments and borrelli buttons are a small upcharge. Fabrics are Thomas Mason, DJA, and Grandi & Rubinelli and prices are very competitive (CMT - $100, TM goldline - $200, DJA 170s - $240, DJA 200s - $280, DJA sea island - $300).

By CMT do you mean Cut/Made/Tailor? Meaning you can supply your own fabric? If true this would be pretty awesome for me as I can cease my search for a tailor to make some shirts for me with shirting material I already have.

As for Grandi & Rubinelli I don't see it on thier website, is this a special request you can ask for?

 

[dirtyturk]

interesting to hear this, I last ordered from cottonwork in feb and got 3 perfect shirts, they even accomodated things like different cuff sizes and unavailable options on their website. i have noticed prices are noe $20 more. to be fair it is still cheaper than most other online mtm tailors.

maybe you had a bad experience?

 

[sellahi22]

Originally Posted by Odd I/O

By CMT do you mean Cut/Made/Tailor? Meaning you can supply your own fabric? If true this would be pretty awesome for me as I can cease my search for a tailor to make some shirts for me with shirting material I already have.

As for Grandi & Rubinelli I don't see it on thier website, is this a special request you can ask for?

Yep, you can provide the fabric and the charge is $100. they have G&R and other fabrics available but not on the site - just call them or make an appointment (if Joe is visiting your town, I've read that the other fitters are much less capable).

 

[Odd I/O]

Originally Posted by sellahi22

Yep, you can provide the fabric and the charge is $100. they have G&R and other fabrics available but not on the site - just call them or make an appointment (if Joe is visiting your town, I've read that the other fitters are much less capable).

Thanks.

Sadly Joe doesn't seem to travel to Canada so I usually just meet one of his travelling tailors. Will contact him to see if I need to send the shirting material to him or if I can hand them off to his visiting tailor.

 

[Henry Carter]

I'll post a review contrary to what others have said here about CW. I've just received 5 new shirts and they are all perfect. I wore the first one today and my fit is now down to a tee. They are always happy to accomodate my dumb requests, which is always the cutaway collar, with softer interlining and high collar but with only 1 button, and it's perfect for me. And also with the strength of the aussie dollar even with the higher prices I am coming out infront. Comparable shirts from local labels such as Herringbone and MJ Bale run me $140-$200 each off the rack with alterations, so $80 a shirt is no big deal.

 

[ThomasTrout]



Interesting. I was just about to order a Thomas Mason 120s fabric from CW and now I'll hesitate. I've actually been going off the rack for shirts lately, which I thought I'd never do after starting MTM 7 years ago with Jantzen. This is partly because I think RTW makers are starting to "get it" with the fits, and partly because I can find an off the rack shirt for sub-$100 (sale price) that has better fabric, collars, and buttons than a sub $150 MTM, and I'm now only giving up a little bit in terms of fit. In 2004, it was damn near impossible to find an off the rack shirt that had a slim fit (and I'm not talking talking about sausage casing slim).

It's funny though, comparing the stitching on my Chan (3 shirts), Jantzen (dozens), and Cottonwork (2 shirts) to higher-end off the rack such as RLPL, Borrelli, etc., the Chinese MTM shirts are still far superior in my opinion.

Just wondering ... did you have any problems with Jantzen. After ordering 3, I think they make a great shirt, but their customer service is abominable. I had some issues with excessive fabric shrinkage that I would like to resolve before ordering more but just can't get a response to my emails. Perhaps you can suggest a way for me to get my issues noticed and resolved? Thanks, Thomas

 

[Alex C]

I was about to order the other day, but I was really put off by their hefty price increases. I'm thinking about pursuing other options.

 

[ALFAMALE]

never a big fan with cotton work to begin with, collars made from recycled cardboard...

 

[sweatlodge]

My experience differed from the original poster in about every way possible. Just received an order that took 2.5 weeks to arrive (with Cottonwork I had been accustomed to 4 or 5 week turnarounds--this is by far the quickest I've received an order.)

The pattern matching seems just fine. Buttons, not so good, but that's always been the case. And the measurements were on point.

Not so happy about the prices--was excited to see I could order linen shirts, but none below $100.

Anyway, just wanted to give my two cents as I've ordered 9 shirts from them over a span of 8 months.

 

[CousinDonuts]



I ordered 3 CW shirts on June 15. My first two orders (circa last August and November) were shipped in about a week. Since my status was still 'production' on July 5 I emailed to get an ETA. They apologized for the delay but did not quote a reason. They offered to upgrade my shipping. I ordered 2 plain colored shirts and one gingham. I'll report back how the pattern matched on that one.

I received my order and all of the quality items seem to be good upon first glance. However, one of my fabrics was cut from the wrong cloth. CW was quick to offer a full replacement.

 

[bhall41]

I have been using Cottonwork for the last 6 months, and the results have been overall favourable. The last couple of orders I have selected Thomas Mason fabrics, and the price remains very reasonable IMO for a MTM shirt.

I am nevertheless interested to hear a bit more about people's experiences with Nialma, in Melbourne. What is Stuart's price structure? Is there a miniumum order?

 

[MrInvariant]



... Nialma, in Melbourne. ...

If you are talking about nialma.com, they are based in HK and the experience is very much the same as with ModernTailor.

 

[taxgenius]

How does CW compare to Moder Tailor on the basic fabrics? The prices appear to be identical, if not cheaper.