Style

A new breed of luxury dress shirts

By: Brian Underwood; Photographs: Alex Cao
[ Updated: Jan 4, 2009 - 3:36:14 PM ]

If you’ve ever purchased a generic department-store dress shirt, you’ve probably experienced this tragedy: You wash the shirt a few times, only to notice that the collar and cuffs have shrunk. That’s because collars and cuffs require an interlining for stiffness, and many manufacturers cut corners by attaching them with glue, which contracts in the wash. Or maybe you brought home a checkered polo and found that the pattern didn’t line up at the seams, which means the fabric was cut by machine, not by hand.

A smattering of American boutique tailors, however, is keeping the art of shirtmaking alive. Hamilton Custom Shirtmaker in Houston, for example, employs 40 master tailors who rely on a steady hand instead of glue, and razor-blade cutting instead of machines. Other tailors, such as Takumi and Rufus, are incorporating details like hand-stitched designs and contrasting fabrics on the interior folds of the cuffs. Are there plenty of high-quality mass-produced shirts? Sure, but why not chart your own course? Here, the best boutique off-the-rack offerings around.

Takumi (shown above)
Luxury dress shirts by Takumi (Japanese for artisan) are handcrafted in the small city of Mobara, just outside Tokyo. Shirts come in basic solids and stripes, and feature hand-rolled canvas collars, contrasting fabric on the cuffs, thick shell buttons, and gussets on the side seams for superior durability.
$189 to $198, takumi-clothing.com



1 Duncan Quinn
British-born New York–based designer Duncan Quinn clearly takes his style cues from the natty English gents of Jermyn Street and Savile Row. He uses a two-piece split yoke (the shaped section at the shoulders that connects all other parts of the shirt), which imitates the natural slope of a man’s back.
$250 to $295, duncanquinn.com

2 Zachary Prell
Prell’s shirts are crafted with today’s more casual office dress code in mind. The tail, which hits at midpocket, is the ideal length to be worn untucked. Mother-of-pearl buttons are evenly spaced and look sophisticated with or without a tie.
$165 to $225, zacharyprell.com

3 Seize Sur Vingt
An American take on a French aesthetic. These dress shirts are made in New York City but inspired by the legendary Parisian shirtmaking house Charvet, known for its smaller collar and short, slim fit. Shirts are cut from the finest Egyptian cottons and hand-sewn in the hills of northern Italy.
$170 to $400, 16sur20.com