How would I find a place in DC that could make some custom-made dress shirts for me?

March 25, 2009 3:43 PM

How would I find a place in DC that could make some custom-made dress shirts for me? Or should I tailor my normal store-bought "fitted" shirts? Will this remedy my issues?

I'm 6'4" 190 lbs and most shirts seem to balloon out too much when I have them tucked in. It unfortunately makes me not want to take my blazer off. And when I wear them untucked with jeans they seem to be a little too wide at the bottom.

How can I remedy this? I'd like to find a place to get custom shirts in the Washington DC area. Or is there some other option I could pursue. The shirts I own are "fitted" but not tailored. Is tailoring a good way to fix this without buying custom shirts? I'm not sure what tailors can actually do with fitted 16-1/2 36/37 store-bought shirts.

posted by decrescendo to clothing, beauty, & fashion (9 comments total)

Welcome to my world.

I wear a 16/36 dress shirt.

You can try two things:

a) move down a size. This generally helps for the "party" shirts. I can get a decent selection of medium talls from banana republic (online)

A tailor can also help you with your issues. Tailors can pretty much do anything with a shirt, as long as the shoulders fit right. So, they can take in the sides, and make it as fitted as you want. They can also shorten those really long dress shirts for you.

Don't go the custom route unless you want to pay $$$. I'm sure there are a lot of tailors in the DC area, but the shirts will probably run you $150 a shirt.

You can try doing custom made shirts online (mytailor.com), and do it online. You'll have to provide your own measurements, and it might take some time to get it right, but after a few iterations, it'll be spot on (and they have a huge fabric selection).
posted by unexpected at 3:49 PM on March 25

I haven't gotten anything from them yet, but there is a shop in Alexandria that advertises custom-made shirts at pretty reasonable prices. It's on Duke Street in a little plaza, right next to Shooter McGee's tavern (which is 5239 Duke St Alexandria, VA 22304). I haven't been by there in a few months but if they're like any of the other menswear stores they might be doing specials right now.

You would either need a car to get there, or take Metro+bus, since it's a fairly good walk from the nearest station. (I think the nearest one would be Van Dorn Street station.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:52 PM on March 25

After a few moments of flailing away at Google, I found their website. (Winning search term was "Hong Kong tailor alexandria".)
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:54 PM on March 25

Try Georges De Paris.

650 14th St
Washington, DC 20005
[phone]
posted by jgirl at 4:46 PM on March 25

unexpected,

Yeah I suppose I could try to find some smaller ones like you mentioned for party shirts. I'll be wearing them differently so they can be cut differently.
posted by decrescendo at 4:55 PM on March 25

I guess what I don't yet realize is how much a tailor can alter my shirt. I know nothing about tailoring so I assume the amount of play in my shirt is minimal. Taking in the sides and playing with the length would be the best thing to reduce ballooning when I know I wear it tucked in.
posted by decrescendo at 4:56 PM on March 25

On that point, you're in luck. Once a tailor gets you into a shirt where the shoulders fit, just about everything else can be fiddled with, sometimes to a great degree. Tougher, but still possible, with jackets, but real easy with shirts.
posted by craven_morhead at 6:49 PM on March 25

6'4, 195, 17-35 here - and the same problem. It drives me crazy.

My solution has been to take the shirts I already own to a tailor (well, actually my dry cleaners on L between 12 & 13) and have them narrow down the chest and waist. They charge around $15/piece so its really only worth it for nice shirts, but it turns out pretty good.

But I've sworn that the next shirts I buy I'll order custom online. Same with suits - I'm tired of paying almost as much for alterations as I did for the suit and ending up with the rear pockets of the pants in the crack of my ass.
posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy at 7:07 PM on March 25

Yeah I must find a good tailor in Arlington then. I suppose Yelp might be my best way to find a good one.
posted by decrescendo at 11:46 AM on March 26