Japanese Bespoke Shirtmakers

[dawei94]

Does anyone here have any experience with Japanese bespoke shirtmakers? I know quite a few on here have experience with Japanese tailors and shoemakers, but there’s not a lot of discussion in shirtmakers. The three I’ve seen are Minami shirts in Tokyo, Masanori Yamagami in Tokyo (he was the former head of bespoke shirts at Strasburgo but it seems he’s now on his own), and Les Leston in Osaka. Is anyone familiar with these or any others? How do they compare against bespoke shirtmakers in the US and Europe?

 

[dawei94]

Stumbled on a wiki that has a list of bespoke shirtmakers based in Japan: https://w.atwiki.jp/bespoke/pages/12.html

Also this article (https://news.line.me/detail/oa-meonline/ekzy07g1wpux) from Men's Ex from 2 years ago listed the three makers mentioned above (Les Leston, Yamagami shirt and Minami shirt) as three notable Japanese shirtmakers

 

[dawei94]

Another bespoke maker not in the list from the previous link:

https://www.instagram.com/ryoikeda_1027/

 

[dawei94]

Looks like this thread will remain just me for now, but wanted to report back on my interaction with Mr. Yamagami:

Met with Mr. Yamagami while I was in Tokyo. He does not have a storefront at this time, but instead visits customers at their homes or offices (or hotel, in my case) as well as at trunk shows. My Japanese is non-existent and Mr. Yamagami is still learning English, so we relied a lot on google translate on our phones, but it worked quite well. He brought sample shirts as well as fabric books and swatches in a suitcase, and we reviewed his suggestions based on my previous commentary over email regarding what I was looking for. Given his price point as well as Japanese market preferences, his recommendations were primarily very luxurious and the swatches he showed me were Alumo, Carlo Riva and Bonfanti. Based on his Instagram account, he also uses DJA fabrics a fair bit. He also showed me some details of his shirts’ house style:

• tapered shoulder seam (see the picture, this is supposed to help with movement but his English and my Japanese were both too limited to communicate / understand the technical reason behind it)
• shoulder width a bit narrower than usual combined with a full sleevehead and very high armhole for ease of movement, in conjunction with the tapered shoulder sleeve
• soft interlining for cuffs and collar
• sleeve gauntlet with no button (which I think is fairly typical for bespoke shirts)
• custom made buttons that are somewhat smaller than typical in diameter and tapered along the back to facilitate easy buttoning (when combined with a crow’s foot stitch, see the attached picture even if the angle is not great)
• his website states that the button holes are custom placed as well
• Differing cuff diameters (larger on the side with the watch of course, which is pretty standard) combined with a button hole placement higher up on the side that you wear a watch, which lets the cuff pivot around the button to be able to open up a bit if you wear a bigger watch

I had previously told him that I quite like Alumo’s Salvatore Triplo given the durability and drape from the weight as well as the nice hand of the 160s yarn, so he started with those. I was informed that there’s now a Triplo twill (I haven’t ordered new shirts since 2016 when they still only had the broadcloth), so I chose the white Triplo twill for two shirts, one a French cuff and one a barrel cuff. I also wanted a more casual / everyday office shirt and was originally going to go with a solid blue, but saw a blue and white stripe Carlo Riva Arsenal (70 / 30 cotton linen). We then proceeded to discuss details: French placket, no pocket, spread collar on all 3 shirts (I don’t know the angle or the type of spread exactly, but pics will be in the next post), collar points with no tie gap. On one of the Triplo shirts and the Riva shirt, I went with single button rounded barrel cuffs and a soft interlining for both the collar and cuffs, while the other Triplo shirt I went with French cuffs (soft interlining) and a stiff interlining for the collar. We then proceeded to measurements, of which he takes 20. I also showed him two of my own shirts that I had, one RTW and one bespoke, to show what I like / issues I typically have. Overall, the process took about 90 minutes, though I think it took a bit longer than is typical because of the language barrier.

Pricing starts at 64k yen and of course varies based on fabric. Triplo was 72k, the Bonfanti book was anywhere from 70-80k yen (he marked one fabric as 70k, another as 76k, but there might be some a bit more), and the entire Carlo Riva book was 110k yen. Personally, I’d probably pick up some Riva swatches on a future trip to Italy if I want more Riva shirts (but most of the fabrics are too silky and thin for someone whose preference is Triplo lol, plus Bonfanti is pretty close to Riva). Mr. Yamagami can accommodate people who are only in Tokyo for a few days but charges a 20k accelerate fitting fee and could have fitting ready in no more than 2 and a half days (we were scheduled to meet Sunday at 11am and then Tuesday at 4pm for the fitting, but I moved up the initial meeting to Saturday at 4pm because I arrived a bit earlier and wanted to give Mr. Yamagami some more time to prepare the fitting shirts). He will do CMT from the second order onwards, and he told me he is in the process of finding a new factory to work with to make polo shirts (the one he previously worked with folded during COVID. Note that pricing is in line with major European / American shirtmakers (but higher than them if you order Riva), rather than the typical pricing of Japanese tailors / shoemakers that make products comparable or better to their Western counterparts at a lower price. Mr. Yamagami’s pricing is a bit higher than but not significantly higher than other top Japanese makers (which multiple other Japanese craftsmen told me would be Minami and Les Leston) if going with their highest level of bespoke (they seemed to have a few different options), and also includes a fitting, which I don’t think Minami or Les Leston do. I’m not sure why the shirtmakers don’t price at a discount to Western makers like shoemakers and tailors do, but I’ve found I’ve generally been very satisfied with Japanese makers because of their painstaking attention to detail that accommodates my nitpicky requests rather than annoys them, so I’m happy to pay the same price that I pay Western makers (though I probably won’t be ordering more Riva).

 

[dawei94]

Mr. Yamagami came back 3 days later to do the fitting. He prepared 2 fitting shirts, one with barrel cuffs and another with French cuffs. The fitting shirt was trim but comfortable and was mostly on the mark, with just a few changes needed, which were:

• Neck ended up being a bit big (to the point that Mr. Yamagami rechecked his measurements, and came in by a full centimeter on both of the neck measurements he takes). I don’t think that was necessarily an error on his part, as I only got off the plane a few hours prior to our first meeting (my shoes are always too tight after getting off a long flight) a and started walking significantly more than I do at home, so it’s totally plausible that between losing some puffiness and a bit of weight, the neck measurement came down
• I will note, that despite the large neck, the collar buttoned up pretty precisely, as the collar still had no tie gap (see picture), while other collars that I’ve had that were too large always looked distorted with a tie
• Collar was a bit tall in the back (but I didn’t show him my jackets so he didn’t know the height of my jacket collars)
• Sleeve length was a bit short, but I prefer to show less cuff, so my jacket sleeves are a bit longer (and again, I hadn’t shown him my jacket, which was an oversight on my part
• Left shirt cuff wasn’t big enough to accommodate my large Garmin watch, which I think was a miscommunication as I was wearing it during our initial meeting. I think he thought I was going to wear a thinner dress watch with all the shirts, but I only plan to do that with the French cuff shirt

We did the fitting with the barrel cuff shirt first and looked at it with and without tie, with and without jackets (I brought two). He marked off a bunch of small changes, plus the stuff above. He then ripped off the collar and one of the sleeves to check how the top of the placket lays and the height of the armhole. As I didn’t have a dress watch or cufflinks with me, he brought his own to let me use. Overall, it looked very good and I have no doubt they’ll fit great when the final shirts arrive. The fittings took about 1 hour, with a few stops to take pictures of various fitting stages to let me document the process. Delivery time is approximately 4 months.

Mr. Yamagami can be found on Instagram and on his website (https://ymshirt.com/).

Note, ignore the lapels flying off the suit jacket, the upwards angle makes it look that way

 

[dawei94]

Mr. Yamagami just messaged me last night saying he has completed the three shirts and sent me the attached pictures of the collar, which have a very nice roll. This is actually a couple weeks ahead of the quoted ~4 month delivery time, which is quite nice. Of the three pictures of white shirts, I'm not sure if all 3 are of the same shirt or if maybe the one where the collar is buttoned is the french-cuff one with a stiffer interlining. Will post more pictures once they have arrived

 

[Mica2015]

thank you for the detalied info

 

[rbaker]

Had good experiences with Takehara in Fukuoka. Good choice of fabrics, including the ones for hot weather.

 

[Guest User]

Mr. Yamagami just messaged me last night saying he has completed the three shirts and sent me the attached pictures of the collar, which have a very nice roll. This is actually a couple weeks ahead of the quoted ~4 month delivery time, which is quite nice. Of the three pictures of white shirts, I'm not sure if all 3 are of the same shirt or if maybe the one where the collar is buttoned is the french-cuff one with a stiffer interlining. Will post more pictures once they have arrived

Did you ever receive your shirts? Would love to see the final results.

 

[dawei94]

Did you ever receive your shirts? Would love to see the final results.

I did! And I actually placed an order for a tuxedo shirt, to be done soon as well.

I will need to take pics when I get home in a week, they are trim but not too tight at all, very clean looking, lots of range of motion for the arms, precise construction as you would expect from a Japanese maker. My own weight has bounced around a bit and it has accommodated just fine.

If you’re thinking about ordering, I can definitely recommend Yamagami-san

 

[Guest User]

I did! And I actually placed an order for a tuxedo shirt, to be done soon as well.

I will need to take pics when I get home in a week, they are trim but not too tight at all, very clean looking, lots of range of motion for the arms, precise construction as you would expect from a Japanese maker. My own weight has bounced around a bit and it has accommodated just fine.

If you’re thinking about ordering, I can definitely recommend Yamagami-san

Thanks. How would you compare to other bespoke shirt makers that you have tried? And is there any handwork? Or machine made shirt?

 

[rbaker]

Thanks. How would you compare to other bespoke shirt makers that you have tried? And is there any handwork? Or machine made shirt?

I am using Takehara in Fukuoka for some bespoke/MTM shirts and I am very happy with him.

 

[rbaker]

I am using Takehara in Fukuoka for some bespoke/MTM shirts and I am very happy with him.

The quality is similar to the UK/European shirtmakers I am frequenting. Except for Charvet.