The trial shirt, and why we ask you to wear it for a week

A shirt looks simple, but it is fitted in more places than a jacket: the collar against your neck, the cuff against your watch, the length of the back when you sit, the room across the shoulders when you reach for something.

So every new shirt client starts with a trial shirt. We take your measurements, draft a shirt pattern, and make one shirt in a cloth you have chosen. You take it home and wear it for a week. Wash it at least twice, because cotton shrinks a little in the first washes and we need to see the shirt after that, not before.

Then you come back, wear it for us, and tell us what you noticed. Common changes are a quarter of an inch at the collar, a little more length at the back, or a narrower cuff on the watch hand. We adjust the pattern and make the rest of your order.

The trial shirt costs the same as any other shirt and is yours to keep. If it needs a change we can make on the shirt itself, we do it free. After that, your pattern is on file. Most clients order four to six shirts at a time, choosing cloth from photos on WhatsApp, and receive them in ten days.