Men's Shirts - a Minor Whinge

thecolourbox

octatonic said:

CHRISB50 said:

octatonic said:

Similar situation for me.
I have broad shoulders and every off the peg shirt is a huge tent of a thing around the waist.

Find yourself a tailor and either have your shirts custom made, or buy off the leg and have them taken in.
Budget for £100-150 per shirt.

Yep.

I have a 15.5 inch collar for which the standard block measurement is around 40 inch on the waist, which is fucking ridiculous, unless you're fat. Also they never fit properly on the cuffs.

I don't think people understand how a shirt should fit properly (same as a suit) until they've had one made for them. Problem is that once you do it's difficult to go back. Can be an expensive business.

Not sure why you're receiving LOL's for a perfectly sensible answer.

It will be price.

People here will happily spend £5k on a guitar but £150 for a shirt seems excessive.
Typical musicians, basically....

To be clear, I didn't spend £5k on my car let alone a guitar!

Phil_aka_Pip

octatonic said:

People here will happily spend £5k on a guitar but £150 for a shirt seems excessive.
Typical musicians, basically....

musician: someone who crams £5k worth of gear into a £500 car to drive 150 miles to a £50 gig

shaunyshaun1234

Musicman20 said:

I but from Next and the amount of packaging is INSANE! Just fold them up! No need for all the faff. 

The worst with next is if you have to send it back and trying to get it to look similar to the way it arrived!!

Modulus_Amps

I have the same issue, tall and slim, you do get slim fit shirts and they make a huge difference compared to wearing a tent

Haych

Slater's is the best place I've found for shirts, and men's formal wear in general.

We got suits for my wedding there, they can't do enough to help.  My dad, who was best man, is disproportionately shaped, to be kind.  He's not tall but needs a 16 1/2" collar which usually equates to the end of his shirt sleeves flapping in the wind.  Slater's do a nice range of shirts with sleeve length options and in a range of cuts to suit different body types.

They also do free alterations for life for any suit, jacket or trousers bought from them.  Can't really fault them for anything, even their prices are good.

JAYJO

Go to TK Max. You will find a small,med,large,xlarge,xxl,xxxxlxxxxxxxl,xsmall,xxsmall,xxxxxxsmall,and they will all fit like a glove!.just be prepared to pick them off the floor and try them on.

57Deluxe

well, if you get your job you can afford to have your shirts hand made in Saville Row!

Rocker

As always, your tailor will advise. 

jellyroll

What's the thing with those loose plastic bits that go into the collar these days?

In ye olde days, all the bits of a shirt were built in. Now we have these bits that fall out, get bent in the wash, create creases when ironed....

Grump grump, grump...

munckee

I'm a 6'2 14.5 stone 16.5 collar and 34/36 waist and I have to get slim fit shirts or they are like tents.  My main gripe with m&s shirts is they are too short and come untucked a lot.  M&S suits I find fit really well but I have to get long jackets.

Clothes sizing is nuts anyway I am a large in most mens shops apart from superdry where I am XL or fat face where I am M

Modellista

Phil_aka_Pip said:

CHRISB50 said:

Not sure why you're receiving LOL's for a perfectly sensible answer.

Probably something to do with the budget, which seems a bit high to me. Well, it's more than I usually spend anyway. It may not be too much if you require a top quality solution. Bit like a Les Paul user telling someone who's used to playing £250 guitars that anything above £2k is an acceptable price for a guitar.

Maybe because "get one custom made" is a fairly obvious answer to the problem of an off-the-shelf item not doing the job properly.  And it slightly whiffs of condescension along the lines of "Let them eat cake".  The thing that stops a chap driving around in a customised Bentley in a tailored Savile Row suit and custom Patek Philippe watch isn't because he doesn't want to, it's because he can't afford it.

At those prices it would cost around £1k to replace my work shirts with tailored ones.  Nobody would notice, or indeed care, apart from me.  And then all my casual shirts would have to be custom made because I couldn't be wearing that cheap tat on a weekend when I was tailored during the week.  And then the trousers would have to be tailored.  And the shoes cobbled.  And the phone Vertu'd.  Where does it end?

If one's tailoring is going to give a competitive edge at work over someone only high-street smart, then fair enough.  The expense is justified.  But there's no way in the average job that's ever going to be the case, so high street it is.  The odd custom-made piece for a special occasion is nice, but overkill for work IMHO.  None of the streets I sweep would care.

TL;DR - buy slim fit by default.  

octatonic

I wasn’t being condescending at all.
I get that £100 is a lot of money for a shirt but 3-4 of those is imho a better solution than 10x£30 off the peg shirts that don’t fit and don’t last.

Even 1 for important events would be in my ‘essentials’ category.

And they last.

I have tailored shirts that I’ve worn for 10 years and they still look fresh. Fresher than I do anyway.

randella

octatonic said:

I wasn’t being condescending at all.
I get that £100 is a lot of money for a shirt but 3-4 of those is imho a better solution than 10x£30 off the peg shirts that don’t fit and don’t last.

Even 1 for important events would be in my ‘essentials’ category.

And they last.

I have tailored shirts that I’ve worn for 10 years and they still look fresh. Fresher than I do anyway.

If I needed a shirt with a collar that I could do up - to look sharp at the odd event - I'd absolutely pay £100.  I don't think that's unreasonable given that Marks' posh ones are pushing £50 and, as far as I can tell, wouldn't fit anyone.

For everyday, I never wear a tie anyway so sizing down the collar until the shirt fits is fine.  I know TM Lewin aren't the best, but they fit me and I can get five for £100.

scrumhalf

jellyroll said:

What's the thing with those loose plastic bits that go into the collar these days?

In ye olde days, all the bits of a shirt were built in. Now we have these bits that fall out, get bent in the wash, create creases when ironed....

Grump grump, grump...

For certain types of shirt they have always been separate. Take them out of the shirt before it's washed, put them back in before you put it on - simple.

thecolourbox

jellyroll said:

What's the thing with those loose plastic bits that go into the collar these days?

In ye olde days, all the bits of a shirt were built in. Now we have these bits that fall out, get bent in the wash, create creases when ironed....

Grump grump, grump...

That's because the plastic ones are rubbish and the loose ones are only meant to be there temporarily until you can replace them with the metal ones

Reverend

I'm at least a 19" collar.

guitarfishbay

Reverend said:

I'm at least a 19" collar.

Are you including your beard in the neck measurement by any chance?

Funkfingers

Have you tried Harvey Proctor?

Sporky

I've been getting my with shirts for the last couple of years from www.tailorstore.co.uk

They start at £49 with lots of options (most of which are free) and they're made to your measurements. Just remember to measure your wrist with your watch on, if you wear one.

Better made than the Tyrwhitt and Lewis shirts I used to buy, and as you might expect they fit beautifully. 

ToneControl

randella said:

I have a collection of nice formal shirts, unfortunately at the moment there's only one in there that fits.  Since I have a second interview today I went on autopilot into Marks and bought a nice crisp, white cotton shirt.  Thirty quid.  Job done.

Two of the same grudges that I've been harbouring for years:

1) solve the plastic crisis overnight - buy unpacked shirts.  Are we as men so soft in the head that we can't envision what a buttoned-up work shirt looks like without half a kilo of cardboard and plastic stiffeners?  At least they've stopped strategically hiding pins in them I suppose.

2) I'm six feet, reasonably slim, wear a 16 1/2" collar.  According to ye olde shirt sizing algorithm, I should have a 40" waist, a chest like a gorilla, and arms that end somewhere near my ankles.

Well that feels better anyway

From several car accidents, I have a 17.5 inch neck, and have the same problem
I buy all my shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt, far better quality than M+S,  I gave up on M+S over 10 years ago
For a few years they've done a "Slim fit", these work perfectly for me. They now also do "Extra slim fit"

I'd try them, and T.M. Lewin, and anywhere else you see Slim or extra slim on sale.
If you go to an outlet village place where they have Charles Tyrwhitt and TM Lewin, they are 4 shirts for £100