First quality dress shirt advice

[dastig]

I'm looking for my first quality dress shirt and I'm in need of help. I want something slim with a nice medium spread collar. I would love to buy a RLPL shirt, but 350 is just too much. What are good brands around 100?

I heard the BB black fleece shirts were slim and they are 150, which would be on the high end of my budget. Any experience with these shirts. Also, are they made by a different company or are they made by BB.

Thanks.

 

[MunnyGuy]

Why not go custom? For a $100 you could have one hell of a shirt, that fits you perfectly and you choose cuffs and collars. An absolute necessity if you are like me a 17.5" neck 34.5" sleeve ans 33-34" waist. Off the rack (even some slim cuts) are absolutelty voluminous around the gut and back. Just my 2 cents.

 

[galland106]

I know some have used Jantzen as their shirt makers and have been pleased. I haven't had a shirt made for me, as I have not moved up to that level of particularity. I strive for that quality with my suits and shoes. The recent issue of "Best Life" has a spread on their recommended shirts with prices. One that I really liked is called "Rufus" and looked wonderful, but retailed for $175. Right now, I get the best off the rack shirts when they go on sale, bringing their price down to the $30's from the $60's, and then take them to my tailor who gives me the slim fit I want for $10 a shirt. I know alot of guys on this forum despise Daniel Cremiux shirts sold at Dillards. I like them, particulary their Signature Series, and after they're tailored for me, they look wonderful. They don't have MOP buttons, but frankly, from across the room, I can't tell plastic from shell or MOP. Good luck with your search.

 

[heavyd]

Originally Posted by dastig

I'm looking for my first quality dress shirt and I'm in need of help. I want something slim with a nice medium spread collar. I would love to buy a RLPL shirt, but 350 is just too much. What are good brands around 100?

I heard the BB black fleece shirts were slim and they are 150, which would be on the high end of my budget. Any experience with these shirts. Also, are they made by a different company or are they made by BB.

Thanks.

I buy the RLPL on sale with the code annually for ~$136, thats the way to go IMO. STP also has mega sales on the high-end shirts.

 

[stickonatree]

1. buy cheap shirts, take to tailor
2. buy custom online

 

[Anders]

Sorry for bringing up a 10 day old thread, but how much should it cost to tailor a shirt (I live in San Francisco)? I have 8-10 "custom fit" shirts from JCrew and Express (

I was in college) but of course they still fit horribly. I called two SF tailors today after work and both said it would cost $30-$35 to shorten arms and bring in both arms and waist. Doesn't seem like its worth spending that much to tailor mediocre/poor dress shirts. If it was $10-$15 a shirt, like other people have mentioned, I would probably get them tailored.

I plan to buy shirts from Jantzen, but in the 2-4 months it will take to perfect the fit I figured I might get some of my current shirts tailored.

 

[stickonatree]

it shouldn't cost more than $30. i'd pay $30 max. maybe it's just the places you called were really high end tailor shops? for simple stuff like that you may even want to bring it to a dry cleaning alterations place. i mean, if they mess up, it's 1)cheap; and 2)the shirt itself was cheap anyway.

 

[leftover_salmon]

I did not find RLPL slim at all, and at 5'7" 170 lbs., I'm no beanpole...it was certainly not as slim as Paul Smith/Etro/Thomas Pink slim.

 

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[Rolo]

Originally Posted by Anders

I called two SF tailors today after work and both said it would cost $30-$35 to shorten arms and bring in both arms and waist. Doesn't seem like its worth spending that much to tailor mediocre/poor dress shirts. If it was $10-$15 a shirt, like other people have mentioned, I would probably get them tailored.


I pay $35-38 to have all that work done and find it well worth it. While taking in the sides and narrowing the arms is relatively simple, shortening the sleeves is a bit more complicated as they remove the cuffs and the plackets and then restitch them to the shortened sleeves.

So, if you pick up a new RLPL shirt on eBay for $50-60 and have it altered this way, you're still under $100 and, most importantly, it fits.

 

[alliswell]

You might also look at Four-In-Hand Ties - they sell a slim fitting shirt that won't break the bank:

Fourinhand.com

 

[Anders]

I guess $30 would be worth it for a nice shirt but since these are pretty poor quality shirts to begin with I don't think it would be. Would a dry cleaning alterations place do sufficient quality work?

One of the places I called was recommended here (Cable Car Tailors) and the other recommended on Yelp.

 

[DunninLA]

The problem is there is quick and dirty tailoring (which I mostly order), and there is proper tailoring (which I do not order)

Sleaves: Quick and dirty -- is to chop off the sleave, remove .5-1.5" of sleave and gauntlet, and reattach. I believe I pay $5 per sleave for this. The downside here is that the gauntlet button is now much closer to the sleave, and some, though not many people, will notice this.

Sleaves: Proper Tailoring -- remove the cuff and gauntlet(also called Plackard) in one piece, and reattach to the shortened sleave. I believe this costs $10-$12 per sleave)

Slimming the sides -- quick and dirty -- remove extra fabric from shirt bottom hem, up to about an inch below the arm attachment point. THIS DOES NOT REDUCE THE CHEST WIDTH, which is generally the arm attachment point to arm attachment point. So a 48" chest will still be a 48" chest. Only the waist down to the hips width is slimmed. This costs about $10 per shirt.

Slimming the sides -- Proper Tailoring -- Removes the sleaves, then removes the extra fabric including in the chest area, then reattaches the sleaves. This slims both waist and CHEST. This costs about $20 - $25 per shirt.

Thinning the upper sleave circumference (before reattaching sleaves to shirt): I've never had this done, but some people do. Add another $10-$15 per shirt.

So, you have two choices, cheap, and proper, to tailor sleaves and slim the sides.

My cheap way costs $18 per shirt. I am considering on a recently acquired Borrelli shirt, to do a proper side slimming (requires removing sleaves), which would then run me $33 for the whole shirt instead of $18. The Borrelli cost me $60 delivered, so even with the extensive alterations, I am in well under $100.

I have a recent ebay purchased Fray shirt that is fine on the sides, but 1.25" too long in the sleaves. I don't know yet whether I will do the cheap sleave shortening or the proper one. Probably proper since it is a $400 retail shirt I bought used for $40. Man you should see the abalone type color those Fray buttons throw off in the right lighting.

 

[Anders]

Thanks for the quick tailoring lesson. I'm not sure how they tailors do it where I called but they only listed one set of prices. If I get seriously interested I'll have to ask them what type they do.

Also, the prices I mentioned are in San Francisco, which could be higher than NYC since we don't have many good tailors.