MTM shirts for under $200?
I've seen Kamakura recommended and saw they got a trunk show goin, but was wondering what else is out there before making a final decision.
9 Replies
Kamakura is well known. So is Luxire and Proper Cloth. CEGO if you're in NYC. Divij Bespoke if they visit your town or if you are in or near Costa Mesa. I get all mine from Spoon in SF. (Some of these are bespoke rather than MTM, or are somewhere in between, not all are strictly MTM.)
Is there much a difference between mtm and bespoke?
Been happy with a Kent Wang MTM shirt, it was around $100
Oh yeah, Kent Wang. Good call.
MTM-bespoke is a spectrum. At the far side of the manufacturing spectrum is a large factory that has a few pre-set things they do, and your measurements get plugged into a program where it spits out how each piece of the shirt should be cut and attached. At the other far side of the manufacturing spectrum is a small workshop, often one person working in a small space, often at home, where the person or people cut and sew, ranging from a fair bit by hand to entirely by hand. So, when you work with a large factory, you are bound by their capabilities - they could theoretically offer a bespoke process, but usually they just do MTM that is very constrained by the options they offer. When you work with a small workshop or individuals, their offerings are kind of all over the place - they may have the ability to do almost anything you can ask for, or they may not, and they may prefer to only cut certain styles, or they may not. Most bespoke is either tiny workshops, or farmed out to tiny workshops; some MTM is but most (by volume) is not. Ultimately the line is: can they cut to your precise measurements or do they put your measurements into a computer to pick the closest templates? There is even then a blurring when you talk bespoke: do they cut off templates adjusted to you or do they go entirely freehand? Can they do any kind of shape you want or do they only do a subset?
Realistically, the gap between bespoke and MTM in shirting can be small, if you have a body that's fairly simple to fit. Most people can get a bang-on near-perfect fit from MTM with no need to go bespoke. Small-workshop production tends to allow more options and details, whether bespoke or MTM. There's also the question of handwork - some things benefit a lot from handwork, but long straight or straight-ish lines can be machine-stitched pretty well. Labor cost and branding can be most of the difference between a $150 bespoke shirt and a $700 bespoke shirt - the former might be cut and sewed in Hong Kong, and straight lines machine-stitched, whereas the latter should be fully hand-made and comes from high-street brand-name tailors (just kidding, they mostly farm it out piece-work to grandmas working out of their houses, but put their brand on it.)
There's also much debate over fused vs stitched collars and cuffs. Despite one seeming better than the other, many people do prefer fused for the shape and rigidity. (These both replace detachable, highly starched collars of old.) Generally large-factory MTM will only do fused, whereas small production may do either.
I like my shirts from proper cloth. Ratio is another option
Thanks for the explanation
Proper cloth is usually my go to.
So for proper cloth enjoyers, did yall do their virtual fitting? And if so, how'd it work out?
Unknown User•12mo ago
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