Update: Custom Spier & Mackay Dress Shirts Have Arrived

A few weeks ago I ordered two custom dress shirts from Spier & Mackay when they ran a 20% off promotion. They arrived early this week, to my surprise. They’d been shipped directly from the factory in India (which was very confusing until I opened the package). It turned out I had been a test subject for their new direct-from-the-factory shipping.

Anyway, the shirts are wonderful… but not perfect. I’ll be making slight adjustments to the pattern and remaking them, at which time I’ll write a full guide on getting the most out of Spier’s custom shirt program (similar to my guide for Proper Cloth). In my case, the sleeves are too snug in the elbow, forearm and cuffs; wearable, but a little tight for comfort. However, the rest of the shirt pattern is perfect. Spier’s custom shirt patterns are the best I’ve tried; it’s magic in the chest, shoulders and armholes. It’s fitted in the chest, but when I reach both arms back like I’m doing a row, it doesn’t pull at the button. It doesn’t have tons of excess in the blades, but when I reach forward, it isn’t tight in the back. It’s magic.

In the meantime, before these shirts go back in the mail, here are a few photos of them. I styled them both to see how the single layer of lightweight collar lining would hold up under a jacket (marvelously in both cases).

As a reminder, what I ordered was:

1- Mid-blue reverse stripe broadcloth shirt with the large Italian full spread (C21) collar with light fused interlining;

2- White lightweight oxford cloth shirt with the same collar + lining, except unfused.

Rick, the owner of SM, worried the single layer of lightweight collar interlining on the broadcloth would be too flimsy particularly with that fabric. But I’m glad to say he was wrong—it’s perfect for what I’m looking for. It stands up under a jacket very well worn open, and will have a nice flexible shape to it with a tie.

The white Oxford shirt is excellent as well. I bought this one because I’ve found myself wanting to wear white shirts more often, particularly with faded jeans, but I only own two white shirts, one of which is an OCBD. I prefer cutaway collars when going without a tie, but like Oxford cloth because I can wear it without ironing. So I took a page from Sid Mashburn’s playbook and made it like one of his “sport shirts” in Oxford cloth with a spread collar.

I’m hoping the remakes come as quickly as the first ones did because I’m very excited to wear these. If I get the sleeve measurements nailed down, I have a few other shirts in mind I’d like to make very soon (and Rick told me recently he’s adding some cotton-linen fabrics to the lineup in the near future, and everybody knows I love cotton-linen shirts).