The Silentist

Review: MyTailor.com custom-made dress shirt

After a long 5-6 week wait, my first custom-made dress shirt from MyTailor.com arrived: a red-gingham button-down collar.

On the whole, I like it a lot and am pleased with the product. The fit is incredibly good and it was worth the wait.

The whole process was rather interesting and for those of you tempted by the idea of going made-to-measure with MyTailor.com, then let me break it down for you what happens.

MyTailor.com has several traveling tailors with whom you can schedule an appointment (either online or by phone). My experience was that the tailor, Mr. Joe Hemrajani, met me in a hotel suite he had set up in and he first consulted me on what I was looking for in this shirt. 

My advice is to have some good ideas about what you want, but I’m sure he can help guide you along in the process. He had several fabric books with him, all at various price ranges (you can see the selection on the website, but it’s nice to get a feel for the fabric, too).

I told him that I was looking for a red gingham shirt, all cotton, and a slimmer cut with higher armholes. I also made sure to specify to him I wanted a button-down collar, a full placket, gauntlet buttons and a longer shirt length because I prefer to tuck my shirts into my pants. He took all these things into consideration and then began the measurement process.

First, he had me try on a shirt of which I assume he already knew the dimensions of and based on that he made some measurement modifications at the shoulders, armhole, sleeve lengths, cuff circumference, chest and neck. (There may have been more, my memory is slightly foggy). He also took a photograph of my profile and front (barechest) to give the shirtmakers an idea of my body’s shape.

And then the waiting. The shirts are made in Hong Kong, but I imagine that they have a fairly big customer base to make the lead time this long. (Feel free to correct me if you know something about their shirtmaking process that makes it longer than some others, like ModernTailor.com).

The result:

Is this as slim-fitting as some would like? Maybe not, but it certainly fits me quite well as I wore it around this weekend, slightly better than the Brooks Brothers Extra Slim Fit line, especially in the waist area and with the extra shirt length. One thing to keep in mind though is that I do not have washboard flat abs, and really going any tighter would probably make the shirt look odd and awkward to wear. I think taking maybe an inch off the total chest size could improve the fit though.

Also, one thing that I really liked is that the chest pocket matches up exactly with the fabric – you can barely tell it’s there in this photograph. One more thing that doesn’t show up in this photo is the collar roll – it’s pretty good with a necktie.

So, what did all this cost? $100, including the in-person fee for the shirt, tax, shipping and fabric. They certainly do have cheaper fabrics (I chose a slightly more expensive one) and you can get rid of the in-person fee if you just enter the measurements on your own, however, I would recommend meeting the tailor just because they have a better idea of hope their process goes and what measurements on your body work within that system.

I think the price for a MTM shirt is a fair one and I finally was able to find a red gingham shirt that fits me perfectly with the details I wanted at a comparable price.

I would use MyTailor.com again, but I’m also open to trying others, too. Their measurements are stored in their system and you can go back and modify them to tweak the fit if you want. The one downside is the turnaround time, however, I don’t think that fast necessarily means better.

Are they worth a shot? Certainly. And I’d recommend getting measured up, too, the first time.