www.meinelt-fashion.com, a Jantzen alternative

[Shirtmaven]

Mother of Pearl buttons come from an oyster shell. They are usually fairly white. Thicker and larger MOP buttons can be very expensive.
They may be using a trochas button. This come from a spiral shaped mollusk. These are usually a touch more yellow. These are lower priced then MOP. They are still very nice. They have a thicker shell so it is less expensive for thicker buttons.

Or

They may be using a plastic/pearl dust combination. These can have a nice shine and color but they will still feel like plastic.

 

[alchimiste]

So pearl is not pearl?
Is it a common practice to call pearl a material other than pearl?

 

[Mike C.]

just struck me that when the question arose several months ago about the horizontal buttonhole at the bottom position on some shirts...all of us amateurs were speculating different reasons for it. my guess now is, this is the 'anchor button', a fairly clever answer to the mystery.

mike c., is this correct, and if so, is 'anchor button' an industry-wide term? i feel i'm on the verge of learning something.

/andrew - always on the verge of...something or other.

Yes, an anchor button is the horizontal buttonhole at the bottom of the shirt. It keeps the placket from shifting up and down when you wear the shirt. Without it, the placket may shift up to 1/4" causing the pattern to misalign.

 

[Mike C.]

So pearl is not pearl?
Is it a common practice to call pearl a material other than pearl?

Pearl buttons might be referring to the buttons many mid-range makers use. What they do is grind up MOP into a dust and mix it with plastic, creating a hybrid button.

 

[odoreater]

Just as an update, I have to say that the customer service of meinelt so far seems to be pretty good. If you email them, they get back to you very quickly, almost as quickly as Joe Hamarajani.

The other cool thing is that you can access your account on their website and see exactly what stage your shirt is in. This is a lot different than what Hamarajani or Chan offer. On Hamarajani's website, when you order the Order Status page just says "Estimated Shipping Date is April 4" and that never changes from when you order to when the product arrives. On the Chan website as soon as you order the Order Status page says "Processing" and changes to "Delivered" some time after you get your shirt. On Meinelt it will read "Order Accepted" then "Measurements Being Check" then "Order Processing" so, that's kind of cool. But, the bottom line is the fit and quality of the shirt, so we'll see what happens. They say that it will be ready in a week.

 

[Hartmann]

Regarding to how they compare to the RTW makes, the following: to me (and most other forum members) the most important thing is fit, and that's what you get with the MTM shops, you get a perfect fit to your own peculiar specifications. I have a bunch of Tyrwhitts and I love the patterns, but what good are excellent patterns when the shoulder is hanging an inch over where it's supposed to be and the waist is blousy. I guess if you know you're going to be wearing a coat all day then it might not matter, but when the coat comes off and all you see is a shirt, a well fitting Chan, Jantzen or Hamarajani will look a lot better than an ill fitting H&K or Tyrwhitt.

Very true. Thanks for the info, etc.

Cheers.

 

[Kevin_lee]

Just as an update, I have to say that the customer service of meinelt so far seems to be pretty good.  If you email them, they get back to you very quickly, almost as quickly as Joe Hamarajani.

The other cool thing is that you can access your account on their website and see exactly what stage your shirt is in.  This is a lot different than what Hamarajani or Chan offer.  On Hamarajani's website, when you order the Order Status page just says "Estimated Shipping Date is April 4" and that never changes from when you order to when the product arrives.  On the Chan website as soon as you order the Order Status page says "Processing" and changes to "Delivered" some time after you get your shirt.  On Meinelt it will read "Order Accepted" then "Measurements Being Check" then "Order Processing" so, that's kind of cool.  But, the bottom line is the fit and quality of the shirt, so we'll see what happens.  They say that it will be ready in a week.

I just found another cool thing. When you sent them an email directly, not over the contact form, you receive a confirmation email with a tracking number, as some other companies have.

But it also show:

....Our average response time for the last 24 hours is 4 minutes. However, responses to email requests can take up to 24 hours, depending on the nature of your request and the amount of incoming emails....

I think it's kind of cool when you know how long it may take until you get an answer.

 

[odoreater]

Kevin, did you order from them, or were you just asking a question?

 

[Kevin_lee]

I ordered last week, today I only ask something.

 

[Kevin_lee]

So folks, finally I got my shirt 3 weeks after I put the Order in. Everything looks pretty ok, style and details as requested.

The Order process is very easy and the customer service is really great. They answer my mails within Minutes. I need to adjust some of my measurements and I'll order 2, 3 more shirts.

What I really like is that I don't need to send my Credit Card details to them. They send an Invoice and I paid by myself. I'm don't like when I send those details to Jantzen or WWchan per email, because email is not secure at all.

 

[Kent Wang]

How do you like the fabric quality? Any comparisons to other tailors or manufacturers?

May we enquire which fabric and pattern you chose? It's a bit hard to tell which patterns look good from just looking at a small swatch on the website.

 

[caledoniasoul2]

yes please update us on the quality, detail work, fabric feel etc.

 

[Kevin_lee]

yes please update us on the quality, detail work, fabric feel etc.

I choose a cheaper fabric as a test first, Oxford and PiquÃ

PE-0BE1.

Plain white pattern, wide spread collar, 2 button angle cuff, hidden front, a pair extra collar stays (requested)

The construction of the shirt is pretty good in my Opinion. I can't really compare the fabric, as I'm only own a couple of Jantzen shirts, but I think the fabric from my new shirt is softer.

Compared with Jantzen I can say that the customer service is far better, they replied always within a couple of minutes and I even a got a confirmation email for my order.

Price is fairly similar, Meinelt is a bit more expensive but I'm willing to pay a couple of extra bucks as long as the service and the shirt is ok.

I think I order a couple of more shirts, it's definitely worth the money in my Opinion.