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Bespoke

A shirt is bespoke when the pattern (form of the shirt) has been made from scratch solely for a single persons shirt. This pattern is what the shirt makers use to create the shape of the shirt. Posture is taken into consideration in this case as well and the shirt is made accordingly. All bespoke shirts are entirely hand sewn and made by the tailor himself.

In addition, collars and cuffs can be made exactly how you want them to be, down to the nearest cm/inch. In fact, that means that in theory the complete design of the shirt is up to you.

Bespoke shirts usually have a waiting time of several weeks and commonly are significantly more expensive than made to measure shirts. A true bespoke tailor will never let you wear anything he is not satisfied with himself.

Made To Measure

Made to measure (MTM) on the other hand is when the shirt maker uses a pre made pattern and adjusts it for the size of the person. Made to measure shirts fit better than ready to wear (RTW) shirts as the ready to wear shirts are averages of people and not individually fitted for a single person.

MTM dress shirts are sown by hand and machine and are sent to a factory where the shirt is made like ready to wear garments except it follows your measurements.

As for tailored shirts they fall into the category of MTM shirts, but are often incorrectly used to indicate that a shirt is bespoke.

Do you have another definition of bespoke in your mind? Write a comment…

Have you ever wondered what designers or other fabric experts look at in terms of quality in fabrics? Other than design, it basically comes down to two important characteristics of the shirt: 1. the yarn count and 2. what the fabric consists of.

Yarn count – the technical sign of quality

The yarn count or thread count is a large part of what determines the feel of the fabric. The higher the thread count the softer the fabric is. Yarn count is the number of threads per square inch of woven fabric.

When looking at fabrics for your next tailored dress shirt keep in mind that anything above 100 is highly acceptable and a thread count of around 80 is usually satisfactory for a nice feel and comfort level.

If the thread count is displayed like this 100/2 it means it has a yarn count of 100 but is also two fold or has double yarn.

Type of Fabric – avoid the artificial feel

Good tailored shirts are made from fabric that feels natural on your skin. 100% Cotton has and will always been on the top of the list for feel good fabric.

However, it can also be beneficial to compromise on the cotton. One reason for this is that shirts with only 100% cotton tend to wrinkle, however if there is the right mix of polyester in the fabric those wrinkles can be avoided. So do not run away from polyester cotton blends (but keep cotton in the majority), they are also generally more affordable.

There are many different types of cotton including Egyptian, Pima, Organic, and so forth. Egyptian and Pima are usually top end cottons with a great feel to them.

Spandex is actually an increasingly common shirt material when mixed with cotton. It gives the shirt good flexibility, durability, and decreases wrinkling.

Linen is a good substitute for cotton, but is mainly used for summer and more casual shirts. Linen actually tends to wrinkle even more than cotton.

Silk is a luxurious affair with great a feel to it, the downside is that it fades easily if it is not dry cleaned. As it sounds, silk is also the most expensive fabric available, but can become more affordable if mixed with wool.

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