For a prolonged period of time prêt-à-porter fashion, more commonly known as ready-to-wear has dominated sales. We here at ShirtsMyWay.com would like to make the argument for bespoke shirts online. For a little more info on the difference between bespoke and made to measure shirts please read our previous post here. The standardized sizes of ready-to-wear clothing promise to fit everyone. With such claims who could resist?

The problem is that with the myriad of body shapes and sizes it is impossible for ready-to-wear clothing to fit everyone perfectly. Instead the goal (for the manufacturers of ready-to-wear clothing) is to create an average to okay fit for the most number of people – and who wants their clothing to be just average or merely okay?

As more and more people realize the accessibility of bespoke and made-to-order shirts and other clothing, prêt-à-porter simply cannot hold up. Even though the sizes are meant to be standard, different companies have varying notions of what a small or medium should be. This forces their customers to memorize long lists of how their favorite brands fit. It is quite common to overhear shoppers reminding their friends and themselves details such as “remember their shirts run small” or “I always have to size down for this brand.”

It is hard for many to disassociate the word “bespoke” with heavy price tags. Before manufactured clothing became easily accessible, most clothing was by default “bespoke,” simply meaning made to order. This did not guarantee a high standard of quality. As ready-to-wear became a popular go to, those who decided to continue having their clothing custom made generally knew more about fashion, were willing to hire better tailors, and spend more money on fabrics thus bespoke became high end.

The Internet has brought a plethora of advancements in many fields, and fashion is certainly one of them. Having a basic understanding of fashion terminology no longer requires formal schooling simply an online search. You are sure to find forums or articles explaining information and providing connections that were simply not available to the masses before. Affordable bespoke tailors fall under these valuable connections. Traditionally bespoke shirts and suits require taking measurements and fittings, but these steps can now be done online without sacrificing the quality of the product.

When dishing out money on clothing it is important to be a smart and astute shopper. Why pay top dollar for an off the rack shirt? We recommend opting for a great bespoke shirt guaranteed to fit you perfectly and not “simply okay.” Whether you are headed for Saint Tropez or walking down Madison Avenue you will still impeccable. Whether you decide dress it up or down you will never have to worry about not looking your best.

For today’s modern gent, the corner dry cleaner can seem as indispensable as your Blackberry.  But the in-and-out convenience offered by many dry cleaning services could carry with it a price for which goes beyond the few dollars you shell out when you pick up your dress shirts or other clothing.  Getting your clothes cleaned without water often involves the use of dangerous chemicals which can have a harmful impact on the environment and your health.

From its early days, dry cleaning has relied on a number of toxic and potentially deadly substances, many of which have thankfully been phased out over the years – for example: carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethane and Stoddard Solvent (all chemicals with known corrosive, abrasive and explosive properties).  Today though the demon of the dry cleaning industry remains perchloroethylene (or “perc”), a hazardous substance which has long drawn criticism from health and environmental protection groups.

Currently perc is used as a cleaning agent by approximately 90% of dry cleaners world wide.  Although 99.99% of the perc used to clean clothing is reclaimed, even small doses of this substance, when they find a way into the air and local water supplies, can be dangerous. Also trace amounts of it can still remain on your garments after treatment, and according to some sources even having dry cleaned clothing in your car can create a potentially harmful build-up of perc particles. Some states (notably California) have passed legislation either banning the use of perc, or calling for its phasing out over the next several years.

In the meantime though, a number of dry cleaning agents have been developed which could replace perc; D5 being a good example. Dow Chemical, a leading manufacturer of D5 conducted a study where lab rats were exposed to the substance for six hours a day, five days a week (presumably the rats got the weekend off), over the course of two years. Dow scientists found that inhaling D5 fumes lead to a greater risk of developing tumors among female rats; a hazard which was determined to be rat-specific when this study was replicated by the Silicones Environmental, Health and Safety Council, a non-profit trade association. Currently D5 is only used at a few hundred dry cleaning locations throughout the United States and Canada, although it is becoming more popular within the industry.

For the time being, if you’re concerned about how your clothing is treated when you drop it off (and you probably should be), ask your dry cleaner what sort of chemicals they use. Ask if they are safe, and ask if they have ever considered switching to other cleaning agent alternatives. After all, when you take your clothing to the cleaners you should be paying not only convenience but for peace of mind.

It’s sad to say it, but unfortunately not every man is born with an innate sense of style. For some guys, it takes a lot of time and practice to learn the intricacies of putting together a good outfit and master the art of looking sharp. Yet, even the most dedicated student can trip and fall hard over the hurdles of fashion if they aren’t careful. Recently we contacted a group of female style experts and enthusiasts to get the scoop on the most heinous crimes  in men’s fashion. Are you guilty of any of the infractions listed below?

I live in downtown Vancouver, BC, and I have noticed some patterns of male “fashion faux pas” when I am out and about downtown. These men are usually the successful type, often driving BMWs and Lexus and I often wonder, “Why!? you have the money to properly dress yourself!”

Wearing too many high end pieces that are obviously branded… examples are: flashy T-shirts with flashy jeans, or embellished shirts and embellished jeans. These brands are usually quite high end, but pairing a lot of them together on one night out is definitely unacceptable.

Also, pairing too many patterns together. This I see a lot as well. A flashy, patterned shirt with a different patterned hat and a different style jacket. Not pretty.

For the average male shopper – that is to say, the man who can appreciate a good dress shirt but isn’t obsessed with style and doesn’t have a degree in fashion design – who’s ready to make a departure from the world of off-the-rack clothing, terms like bespoke and made-to-measure shirts (MTM) can seem alternatively attractive and confusing. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, astute shoppers and philologists may be wondering if there is any difference between them – and in fact there is.

Let’s look first at the word ‘bespoke’, which is one term that gets thrown around a lot by online clothiers even though its current usage is quite different from its original meaning. Originally coined in Britain to describe the high-end shirts and suits produced in such places as London’s famed Saville Row, bespoke items, in the strictest sense of the term are items designed for a customer on a one-off basis with no set pattern to start from. That is to say, with bespoke products no two items will be exactly identical, at least in theory. It is the customer, for all practical purposes, who ‘speaks’ for his clothing, and how he would like it to be made.

Today, the term ‘bespoke’ is something of a high-brow word, especially outside of the UK, where it’s meant to conjure up images of dapper aristocrats and gentlemen in wool suits (and usually carries a price-tag to match this upper-crust image). Yet, bespoke clothing is not necessarily any better than other kinds of customized clothing in terms of construction. Furthermore, much to the chagrin of old-school bespokers and sartorial purists everywhere, according to a 2008 ruling by the British Advertising Standards Authority, tailors can use the term bespoke in place of ‘made-to-measure’.

For a long time, made-to-measure clothing existed somewhere between the ready-to-wear and bespoke categories, but the major distinguishing characteristic of MTM items is the fact that they are designed from an existing pattern or style. A made to measure shirt, for example, would not be made ‘from scratch’ but rather by making changes to the size of a shirt which has already been designed. Although the term may lack the panache of ‘bespoke’, in many ways made-to-measure services can be much more suitable for guys who lack a thorough understanding of tailoring yet want the perfect fit and a more personalized feel to their clothing. But no matter if your shirts and suits are hand sewn, machine stitched, constructed using a pattern or a drawing you made yourself, the most important thing is getting clothing you’re satisfied with.

In the realm of men’s outerwear, denim jackets have a somewhat spotty track record. They never quite go out of style, although some years – like this one – they enjoy more popularity than others. While it’s pretty easy to look like a biker or a buckaroo in a denim jacket, incorporating one into a classy outfit with nice custom shirts takes some know-how.

If you’re hoping to look proper in a denim jacket, the first thing you should do is refrain from wearing any other piece of clothing made with denim fabric, specifically denim jeans. It doesn’t really matter if the jacket is dark-washed and the jeans are stone-washed, wear them as part of separate outfits or risk being lambasted for your “Canadian tuxedo”. On the flip side, avoid trousers that are obviously too “dressy”, for example, black pinstriped slacks or too-supple suit pants. Try a pair of dark grey or green chinos instead for a more sophisticated look.

Once you’ve got your trouser selection under control, next consider your shirt. For a lot of guys who love denim, a simple undershirt seems like the obvious choice for their top – unfortunately this would be a mistake. Throwing on a plain T with a jacket – especially one made with as a fabric as denim – can give the impression that you either just got out of bed or put no thought at all into your outfit. Denim outerwear really works best when combined with brightly colored dress shirt. Shades of pink, red and orange go particularly well with denim blues to create a high-contrast, but sensible, outfit. As temps get colder, don’t be afraid to try out a layered look by adding a sweater (again, the brighter the better) to your ensemble.

Finally, a great way to dress up a denim jacket is with accessorizing. The best accessories to pair with a denim jacket are usually textured – think chunky cabled scarves, or rough tweed hats. Just like the color of your dress shirt can create contrast with the color of your jacket, the perceived feeling of wool can create its own kind of contrast when worn in conjunction with denim. Either way, a brightly colored knit scarf or newsboy cap will look a lot classier than a baseball hat.

Variety is the spice of life, right? This charming platitude might have some value when it comes to what you’re going to have for dinner or your weekend plans, but unfortunately when applied to fashion, it’s all too often used to justify fits of sartorial excess. Case in point, attempts to jazz up an otherwise acceptable custom shirt with tacky embroidery in a misguided attempt at originality and distinction.

We should tell you right now that by the word “embroidery”, we’re not talking about simple monograms or sewn corporate logos (which aren’t likely to cause much controversy and are largely considered acceptable ways to add personality and individuality to a shirt). We’re referring to mens dress shirts which showcase intricately designed needle-work graphics that go above and beyond the standard accents most tailors can offer.

Broadly speaking there are three types of embroidered shirts, for three types of people. First, you’ve got shirts with flowery, sage brush-style bib and yokes for square dancers, folk singers and aspiring cowpokes. Second, you’ve got the more “hardcore” shirts for death metal fans, which usually feature some kind of scrolling Gothic or skull-and-brimstone motif sewn into them. Finally, for retro-minded hipsters, or aging hippies who actually lived through the 1960’s, you’ve got vintage (or “vintage”) embroidered shirts which usually feature some kind of psychedelic, multi-colored pattern available in thrift shops and a growing number of ultra high-end retail shops.

Of course, shirts like the Guayabera (aka “the Mexican wedding shirt”) and various forms of traditional clothing from Europe or Africa also feature embroidered patterns, but fall outside of the rules of style and are exempt from our thesis, which is this: embroidery does nothing for a man’s shirt. Much like screen-printed shirts, it’s well nigh impossible for a man to wear a shirt covered with needle-work and be taken seriously – try wearing one when you go to meet your girlfriend’s parents for the first time and see for yourself. If you want a distinctive shirt that won’t cost you your dignity, we recommend overlooking embroidery.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the world was riveted by accounts of the Koh-i-Noor, a 105 carat diamond valued at 137 million US dollars in today’s money. This lavish rock was given to Queen Victoria in 1850 by the royal family of India, as part of a settlement following the Sikh Wars. There was a catch though: the stone was said to be cursed, and any man who wore it was sure to meet a tragic end. While all pieces of bling are not as dangerous as the Koh-i-Noor, for the sake of style, men should approach every item of jewelry as though it were imbued with a deadly hex.

Given the above injunction, it should be obvious that we have a pretty conservative stance on guys getting glammed up with precious metals and shiny stones. For a lot of reasons, men with jewelry just don’t sit well with us. For one thing, in today’s society, jewelry is more of a feminine interest than anything else – diamonds are a girl’s best friend after all, but how many guys do you know who get fired up about necklaces and bracelets or stop in their tracks when they pass a jewelry store? Probably not very many.

This might have something to do with the way men in the West have historically viewed conspicuous displays of wealth or status. In the past, many ancient peoples – notably the founders of Western civilization, the Greeks and Romans – adhered to what were known as “sumptuary laws”, which forbid men from wearing not only expensive textiles but also accessories made with gold, silver or precious stones.

Similar laws were put into effect throughout Europe during Medieval and Renaissance times as well as in America during the Colonial period. Given the puritanical values of early America, it’s not hard to see why laws forbidding showing off were accepted and encouraged. Of course, with time they became hard to enforce and were often broken, but probably not without first taking at least some root in the North American cultural psyche.

Also, the guys you do see rocking rings or necklaces usually either come off as young and immature or old and disingenuous. Take for instance, the late-teens, early-20’s heavy metal fan who wears “tough” necklaces featuring skulls, dragons, voluptuous female silhouettes, or similar icons. While inexperienced youngsters might get away with this kind thing, a grown man will have much less luck wearing accessories which broadcast their involvement in a particular subculture.

At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got the slick older guy who wears a ring on every other finger and a gold chain underneath his polo shirt. This kind of display might be tolerated in the workplace if you’re employed as a used car salesman or a debt collector, don’t expect it to carry you far in a board meeting or at a night club. Even the more acceptable men’s accessories, like tie clips, cuff links and watches should be as simple and plain as possible to avoid coming off as vulgar.

Basically, if it’s not a wedding or engagement ring, wear it at your own peril. For the most part, jewelry does nothing for a man and is extraordinarily difficult to pull off without either seeming pretentious or a disciple of Mr. T.

1994 was a pretty significant year for pop culture – it was the year O.J. Simpson’s slow speed chase made the news, Major League Baseball went on strike, Woodstock II was held in upstate New York, and the word “shrinkage” entered the active vocabulary of guys everywhere thanks to a now-classic episode of Seinfeld. But while shrinkage, as it relates to clothing, is often referred to with laughter and the occasional smirk, this all too common phenomenon can still take its toll on your custom shirts if you’re not careful.

As we told you in a previous post, most modern natural fabrics undergo a finishing process known as sanforization, which cuts down on shrinkage by reducing a fabric’s tendency to contract or get smaller during washing. Furthermore, many brand name pants and shirts are pre-washed, and thus pre-shrunk, before they are sold. Despite of these processes, shrinkage has yet to be totally eradicated, especially when it comes to tailor made or customized shirts.

Fortunately though, if the fabric used to make your shirt isn’t pre-washed or otherwise pre-treated, it will probably be cut to accommodate a certain amount of shrinkage, which typically occurs after the first wash. Depending on the textiles being used, a shirt may be cut as much as an inch larger than necessary. As a general rule, if shrinkage does take place, it should occur evenly throughout high-quality shirts – that is, the no one part should shrink more than the other. For the most part, if the cleaning instructions on your shirt are followed carefully, you shouldn’t expect to see more than a 2% decrease in a shirt’s size.

If you d0 disregard, either willfully or carelessly, the washing instructions recommended by your shirt’s care tag though, you’re courting trouble. A simple oversight like sending your shirt through the drier on hot instead of warm may not cause much damage, especially if the garment is a few years old, but some guys have made the huge mistake of attempting what is known as “targeted shrinking”.

While many have fool-heartedly attempted to induce shrinkage to get a better fit, nearly all have failed. This operation, which usually involves a bucket of ice water and a pre-heated drier, is way too difficult to control and, given the permanency of shrinkage, you only get one chance to get the results you want (which you probably won’t).

If you ever hope to wear that too-large shirt again, take it to a tailor instead, especially if there’s only a size problem in one or two parts of the shirt. If you take the time to familiarize yourself with the services a tailor can offer, and can operate a washer and drier, there should be no reason why shrinkage should be the downfall of your clothing.

Over the past couple of years, the word ‘organic’ has become a major buzz word for shoppers and retailers. Basically any product you might be in the market for even if it isn’t custom shirts – from coffee and toilet paper to cosmetics and carrots – has any organic option these days. It should come as no surprise the new-found love for all things organic has reached everyone’s favorite source of textile yarn, cotton.

Cotton has been used to make clothing for thousands of years and today it’s one of the world’s largest cash crops, with millions of bales being produced every year. While cotton is used in startling number of home products, a quick look through your wardrobe will confirm that it’s also widely used to make clothing as well.

Yet, despite its wide application, there are several problems with cotton production.  Although it can grow in some pretty inhospitable climates and doesn’t require nutrient rich soil, cotton is one thirsty crop. Cotton production consumes about 2.6% of the world’s yearly water supply; and from field to finished product, producing a single cotton t-shirt requires approximately 2700 liters of water.

Although the water gulped down by cotton plants around the world is a huge problem for the clothing and agriculture industry, it can be argued that an even larger threat comes from the pesticides and chemicals used to help cotton grow. Over 16% of the pesticides used in the world today are used on cotton, a staggering number when you think about all of the thousands of different crops grown around the world. These chemicals can threaten nearby plant species, find there way back into water supplies or remain on cotton fibers after they’ve been used to make clothing.

Organic cotton though, by definition, does not involve the use of synthetic chemicals and pesticides, which has obvious benefits for farmers, consumers and the environment. Yet, organic cottons are also not genetically modified, which has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, modified cottons are altered primarily to be resistant to harmful bugs and insects, thus cutting down on pesticide use. Furthermore, with genetic modification, cotton can be turned into a food source in areas where other crops might not be able to grow.

The down side to all this though is that genetically modified crops can lead to genetically modified (through adaptation) insects, which can cause just as much havoc as their progenitors. Another strike against modified crops in general is that they all too often create unequal relationships between farmers and producers of modified seeds. A lot of crops that have been tampered with in a laboratory are also genetically hardwired not create new plants – meaning that struggling farmers are forced to buy new seeds from a supplier every season rather than allowing fresh crops to grow via the birds-n’-bees.

But whatever benefits organic cottons can offer, it will likely be a while before they become as ubiquitous as conventionally grown cottons. As of 2007, there were only a little more than 250,000 thousand bales of organic cotton grown in 24 different countries; while the top three producers of non-organic cotton – China, The USA, and India – alone turned out more than 67 million bales. But despite the current imbalance, organic cotton production is growing by about 50% a year as more and more countries, farmers and shoppers are looking towards it as a source of sustainable clothing.