🚀 go-pugleaf

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ObLYM5aPhtU/UioxaPoKbkI/AAAAAAAAMKU/QYCUKGAeDXA/s1600/bettershirts.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ObLYM5aPhtU/UioxaPoKbkI/AAAAAAAAMKU/QYCUKGAeDXA/s400/bettershirts.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><P> The price of having one’s clothes made, and made well, can be high and so all but the very few look to save when they can. As mentioned here before, one way a man can save is to have at least two tailors, one of whom is more economical; yet another way is to limit spending where it will go mostly unnoticed. Odd trousers, hosiery, and under garments all come to mind as reasonable articles on which to compromise quality (Sorry, Will). Indeed, anything not so appreciably on display might do, and thus men often apply the idea to shirts. The reasoning seems to make sense, of course, since so much of a shirt is hidden under a jacket that few rarely consider much beyond whether the thing fits about the neck, chest, and wrist, but the shirt plays a significant role in the day’s clothes, perhaps more significant than is obvious, and the money one saves (read: buys some other article of clothing with) may be no bargain. That extra jacket or pair shoes will be worn at most one or two dozen times a year, the shirts will be worn every day.<p> One argument sometimes used to justify skimping on shirts is that the shirt is merely the item upon which other more important articles are laid, and that it is the necktie and jacket that perform the important function of leading the eye to the face. The shirt, therefore, by its function isn’t worth a large portion of <a href="http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/2012/01/beau-brummels-on-14000-year.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Waugh’s $14,000</a>, despite the need to own many of them. But consider that the shirt is the piece of clothing closest to the face. In fact, it colors the face. The wrong shade can make a man look like he is recovering from a kidney ailment, and the wrong collar can make look as if he is helping Tom Ford bring back the disco (or in Tom Wolfe’s case find yet another place to stick an exclamation mark). The details of one’s shirt, in other words, are quite important, and have considerable affect on how one’s face is framed. With ready-to-wear shirts, the right details (of fit, color, cloth, and collar that suit the individual) are not always so readily available, and to find them together in one shirt is to be lucky, until one goes to pay for them and wonders why he is paying near-bespoke prices to depend on luck, or more rightly the market forces that guide (if not open the seacocks of) the better (Italian) ready-to-wear shirtmakers, Needless to say, such forces are hardly conducive to dressing well. One would do better to use that same money to procure a bit more control of the process and have shirts made to measure.<P> The problem, though, is that MTM is only marginally better. Sure, one can select from very good shirtings in many shades and patterns and manage to get a reasonable fit, if one works at it and is willing to go through more than a bit of trial and error, but what constitutes a reasonable fit? The shirt sits right against the skin, after all, and pre-washing shirtings for shrinkage is not part of the MTM process (which is why most are cut particularly big). What’s more is that expectations of fit change when having clothes made to measure. Tolerating shortcomings is simply harder to do the more one spends, and nearly any honest-with-himself MTM customer will admit that MTM shirts have plenty of shortcomings, notably those small defects of one’s size and shape that go either unnoticed or unrectified, as was the case for me with one well-known firm which failed to account for my sloped shoulder despite six opportunities to do so. Of course, not every man will be hard to fit; some may have only slight peculiarities and do well with MTM, at least as it concerns the fit of the chest, neck, and wrists.<p> The collar on a MTM shirt, however, is another matter. The most vital part of how a shirt frames the face, the collar requires a more delicate touch than the MTM firms I’ve used seem to possess. My own collars never quite aligned with my face, nor did they ever stand properly (one collar leaf was always flat to my neck, which I later learned was a result of the sloped shoulder mentioned above). In fairness, the firms who made me these collars have been contrite and eager to correct the deficiencies on subsequent orders, tasks at which they failed repeatedly. I suppose that speaks to the difference in skill between bespoke and MTM firms, or between the many cutters at any one MTM firm, but perhaps it is also a difference in time and care. My bespoke shirtmakers don’t try to correct a problem and apologize when they struggle to do so. They simply eventually get it right. With MTM, one gets what is at best nearly right, and it leads one to ask “Why bother paying for clothing that is not just right? The question, I’m sure, causes many to leave or leap the MTM station.<P> Bespoke shirts, and the people who make them, are not without faults naturally. All but the very few (and very expensive) makers produce more than a thousand shirts a year. There will be an occasional dud, and the customer may be expected to absorb the cost. Indeed, because of the quantities involved some bespoke shirtmakers lack the professionalism and care often associated with bespoke tailors, and this may be particularly true of those makers who do not want to shut off the autopilot. Yet, find a very good artisan who is amenable to requests and challenges and one will quickly look to some other article of dress to save funds. An excellent cutter can work shape into a shirt that both flatters and invigorates. To put it plainly, a bespoke shirt simply feels better. Some might say the feeling is a placebo effect, and if that is true so be it. Most altering medications are just that anyway, and those aren’t so cheap. So consider trying better shirts, the money one was once saving will be quickly forgotten, but the fit, feel, and shape of the shirts will not.<P> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">Words and photo by Anthony Eleftherion</div><div class="feedflare">
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