The Multiplication of a Shirt

January 11, 2011 5:03 AM

I have a dress shirt, the cut of which is perfect. Is it a luxury within the reach of an ordinary middle-class person to pay someone to create a half-dozen replicas of this shirt in different colours / fabrics? Is it something I'd have to outsource, perhaps? Would it be significantly more expensive than simply ordering bespoke shirts made with measurements approximated from original?
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

Best answer: I don't know about the cost of cloning a shirt, but I get my shirts and suits tailor made in Bombay. Depending upon where you live you might not even have to travel, as many hotels host "visiting tailors" who measure then ship you your clothes a few weeks later.

Tailor made shirts run me about ten pounds, a suit about ninety so yeh, clearly in reach of middle class folks. But be warned: once you go tailor made you won't find it easy to return to off the rack again.
posted by Mutant at 5:08 AM on January 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I assume you can't just get more from the place you bought that shirt from? If you can't get the shirts with the exact measurements just order them a little larger and take them to a local tailor to have them altered.
posted by brownrd at 5:09 AM on January 11, 2011

I can tell you that my husband (ordinary middle-class person) gets completely custom tailored shirts for $100 apiece. Talk to a tailor. It may be out of reach to get them all done at the same time, but it would definitely be a worthy investment.
posted by something something at 5:16 AM on January 11, 2011

Best answer: I've done this before with good success. What you're looking for is a made to measure tailor; the two I've used are Jantzen and Modern Tailor.

Jantzen has you actually mail your shirt to them, which they'll copy.
Moderntailor has you take a bunch of measurements of the shirt and send it to them, which they'll use. It looks like they'll also let you mail your favorite shirt to them, though I haven't tried that before.

Both tailors will let you choose different fabrics / collars / cuffs / etc, if youl ike.

Depending on the fabric you choose, it'll cost you anywhere from $40 to $120. Enjoy!
posted by poq at 5:54 AM on January 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I haven't used Jantzen to copy a shirt, but I got fitted when I was in Hong Kong and have ordered half a dozen shirts from them since. It may take awhile to get it done (6-8 weeks at the longest), but they do good work and it'll probably run you about $40 a shirt.
posted by electroboy at 7:26 AM on January 11, 2011