van Laack Shirts?

[xspider]

What do you think of van Laack shirts? Any experience with the shirts (Quality?) Would you recommend them?

 

[Lucky Strike]

I've had a few - they're very good quality, but some of them have an annoying embroidered "vL" monogram on the cuff. They also have the added quirk that the buttons have three holes. The cut is middle-of-the-road, good, slim-ish, but nothing extreme.

 

[LabelKing]

I think they use a fused collar.

 

[Duveen]

They are fine European shirts. I saw them all the time in Germany, but they definitely seemed fairly middle of the road...

 

[Gherkins]

They are very highly rated in Germany - but once I've tried H&K there was no going back.
Workmanship around the shoulders and the fit of the cuffs are definitely not my taste.

 

[SGladwell]

They have different lines. Some are OK, some are meh. Of German shirtmakers, I prefer Jacques Britt to Van Laack.

 

[SimonC]

I found one in a store this morning and was going to ask the same question - this was a Van Laack 'Royal', with (shanked!) MoP buttons. However, the cut was rather generous and I didn't care for the shirt pocket (nor the lack of a split yoke, but that's a vanity issue).

 

[boo]

In case it hasn't already been mentioned, they have a recently opened store in Manhattan on Madison between 43rd and 44th. I just noticed the store today on my way out from AE. Mens items consisted mostly of dress shirts, along with some ties, belts, and cufflinks. A sizeable chunk of their stock is 50% off. I don't recall at what prices the shirts start, but the ones I looked at were around $150 (before the 50% off). Sleeve shortening and darts are free of charge, even on sale shirts. They have a MTM program, but I recall a starting price of $250 being mentioned.

 

[Journeyman]

A store near where I work stocks them.
They have two different levels of Van Laack shirts in store - I can't remember the name of one, but the other is the "Royal" line.
Not bad quality, but pretty damned expensive for what you get, as far as I could see.
Also, they seem to outsource a lot of their production to SE Asia - Vietnam and the like.
I tend to baulk at paying AUD$250 for a shirt when I suspect that it was made by someone in a sweatshop and cost the company a total of about $10 in materials and labour...

 

[neyus]

There are number of different levels of quality in the Van Laack line up. Royal and Handmade. Royal appears to be your standard middle of the road, shirt equivalent to in make and materials as an Italian shirtmaker such as Ingram. The handmade line is quite nice, and comparable to Borelli, unfortunately the price seems to be up there with them as well. Which would be okay if the shirt wasn't made in Vietnam. Makes me think that they aren't passing the savings on to the customer.

Actually in the Van Laack catalogue they mention that they built a nursery for staff at their factory. They obviously want to let people know that their shirts aren't built in some sweatshop. The pictures of the factory looked nice too.

 

[pkiula]

Top of the line shirts if you get the D or E fabrics. The stitching is fantastic, the retail on the Italian style collar (you can pick your style from several options) is gorgeous, the fabric holds up to multiple washings. It's surely better than some of the run of the mill Borrelli stuff, especially when handmade and tailored. They send it back to Germany for the actual construction. I love these shirts and recommend them highly...better than many tailors in Singapore for sure.