Monday 9 January 2012

Custom-made shirts online

Series Five of Doctor Who saw Matt Smith wear a number of off-the-peg items, which proved to be a double-edged sword. Although most were found, by the time they were identified they were sold out or last seasons lines.
The most sought after was the shirt by Paul Smith, which exchanged hands on eBay for up to £350 on occasions!

Series Six saw a whole new wardrobe, and a whole new set of challenges for the average cosplayer wanting to dress as The Doctor.
Most of the new costume was custom made, with the exception of the G-Star RAW trousers. The one other thing you would have thought would have been found was the shirts - but no luck there.

However, there are a number of sites which offer custom-made shirts to order where you can get a 90% accurate shirt at a bargain price, if you select the right options. Some can even pass for the real thing if you order it right!

Here are three sites I would recommend.


iTailor.com
This site is very easy to use.
Choose Custom Shirts from the bottom menu and once the interface loads it is very easy to select and see what you want.

Fabric
You can find a reasonable option for a blue shirt; I couldn’t find anything for the window pane version; but there are a couple of possibles for the striped, though none are totally right.
The one I chose was code 225-A06-161 (see right).

Options
You then proceed through a number of options, building your shirt as you go. A 3D CGI example of your choices is shown, which works very nicely (see below).


You need to choose: Long Sleeves, No epaulettes; Single placket; Centre pleat; Tri-Tab; Tab collar; No pocket; One button, angled-cuff; No contrast fabric; White buttons and buttonholes; No monogram.

You can choose to either put in bespoke sizing or standard Small through to 4XL.

Price
The shirt I ordered came to £35 with shipping, with an option to use PayPal.
Thanks to Ewan Anderson and Daniel Pawlik for finding this site

ModernTailor.com
This site is reasonably easy to use, though there isn’t a nice 3D preview as on iTailor. To get started select Design Your Shirt in the top right of the page.

Fabric
There is a dazzling array fabrics to choose from. There are over 2,000 to choose from. I haven’t gone through all of them, so if you find a good made to the window-pane or striped shirts, do let me know.

I did find a good blue pinpoint fabric though, code R67181-04 (see right).

Options
First you choose your collar. you need British Collar (see left). next you need Cut corner cuffs with one button; White buttons; No pocket; Button placket; Box pleats; (all other options need to be left off).

After registering, you then need to enter your sizing. This can be done bespoke or to set sizes ranging from XS to XXL.

Price
The shirt I ordered came to US$65with shipping, with an option to use PayPal.
US$65.
I’ve ordered a shirt though here, along with the swatch pack, which may reveal some further choices, so stay tuned.
Thanks to Ewan Anderson for finding this site

GIORGENTI
Straight off, this website is NOT so easy to use. I cannot give you a direct link to the online shirt-maker, but if you click the headline above, you’ll find custom shirts is already in the search box top right, so just click search below it (see right).

Once you are in, click Design Your Shirt Now >> and you are ready to make your shirt.

Fabric
The blue shirt is the only Matt Smith option currently on here.
Shirts are offered under three levels of quality: Custom Economy; Deluxe Custom; and Luxury Custom.

Under Custom Economy, choose Dress Shirts, then Pinpoint Oxford.
The Blue E11531 at $49 is a good choice. it is a 60/40 blend.

Under Deluxe Custom, again choose Dress Shirts, and this time Pinpoint.
the Blue M11531 at $89 is the best choice here. It is 100% cotton.

There is not a decent option under the Luxury Custom range, thankfully, these are $159 to 4280 a piece!

Options
Now you hove chosen your colour, select Continue at the bottom of the screen to then select the shirt’s options.
Your choices should be as shown here.


For fitting, these is a choice of basic measurements or a more comprehensive version which allows for non-common body sizings and fitting.

I ordered myself a shirt from here in September, and had it in time for Chicago TARDIS in late November. I was pretty happy with the result - you could hardly tell the difference form the screen-used shirt!

3 comments:

  1. Nice alternatives for a budget. £35 is definitely more appealing if you don't have much for an accurate replica.

    I'd be curious to see perhaps some images in this post of the shirts you received from each one? To see how the final product fares. Would be rather interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for these links, steve. I'll be getting a few off itailor, minus the tab collar as i'll be able to wear them for work too. cheers

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, i would also be interested in some pictures of the shirts you bought here.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.