Made-to-order services are useful with workwear shirts, where bespoke makers can rarely replicate the construction or the materials. We covered one such service recently, from The Anthology, and today we’re reviewing another, from Bryceland’s.
I should say, by the way, that in that Anthology review I didn’t mean to directly compare the shirt with my bespoke ones. That would be unfair, as this system offers something much simpler, cheaper and quicker.
I had a couple of comments from readers about this, because I used a bespoke shirt to find out what my ideal measurements would be – and see how close I could get with the Anthology MTO. I still think that’s a good way to work – to pick your best-fitting shirt and measure it when you’re picking adjustments in an MTO system – but I wanted to emphasise that I wasn’t saying the Anthology fell short in not replicating a bespoke fit.
Now, on with Bryceland’s.
I’ve always liked Bryceland’s shirts, yet often found the styles didn’t quite work. Ethan* tends to favour more original, authentic designs rather than completely reworking them, and it was often these elements that stood in my way.
For example, early on I owned both the Teardrop (top image above) and the USN chambray (second image above). I wore them both but over time less, especially with tailoring. I found the longer collar of the USN better with a jacket – and on me more flattering – but liked the design and material of the Teardrop more.
These points are largely subjective of course. Which design you prefer is entirely subjective, and different collar styles – especially heights – work better for different people’s body shapes.
When I was talking to Ben** in the London store a couple of months ago – actually about their MTM tailoring, which we covered recently – he mentioned that they could make a shirt to my preferences: the USN collar on a Teardrop shirt.
Now that doesn’t mean you can chop and change everything on a Bryceland’s shirt. The style still has to be retained. But there’s more flexibility than you might think, particularly given how closely they work with the manufacturers.
The same goes for fit. You can change shoulder width, body length and sleeve length, but you can’t make the body shape very different, or add darts for example. This is a work shirt though – it shouldn’t be that tailored.
In my case, I know that most of the time I’m a standard size in the chest, shoulders and sleeve length of a shirt, but a size down in the collar and waist. So I tried the Teardrop and was, as predicted, a Large in those first things and a Medium in the others. We put in an order for the shirt in those measurements, with the collar swapped for the USN one.
Ben also suggested raising the height of the collar slightly and so we added half a centimetre there. This was felt to be still within the existing style, as was the new collar.
The resulting shirt was exactly what I ordered. It might seem odd to say that, but as we all know it’s not always the case with bespoke makers.
The result also illustrates, I think, the power of making simple changes to existing garments, rather than starting from scratch. The gap between expectations and result – often the biggest issue with bespoke – is narrowed from both ends.
The collar on the shirt felt a little long to start with, probably because I was used to it in the softer USN material. But after wearing it with a jacket for a while the collar moulded slightly, getting a subtle ‘S’ shape and looking a little shorter as a result. It also fit nicely under a tailored jacket.
The colour will fade a little with repeated washes, which will make it nicer I think. I enjoy the construction details on the teardrop as well – as it says in the product description, it’s a work shirt from a time when even the most robust clothing still had charm in its design. (Such as the little pleats on the back, shown above.)
The only small issue I had was a little shrinkage, around 1cm in the sleeves after three washes. This is tiny really, and certainly within the tolerance for any fabric supplier, but when I make another one I’ll likely err a little longer than shorter. Easier to shorten if I need to.
(The chambray/linen, by the way, definitely has more shrinkage than the plain chambray, and I’d ask advice there on how much extra to have to account for it.)
Prices for MTO shirts are generally around 20% more than the RTW. My shirt was £269. The linen/chambray is a little more as it’s a more specialist cloth. Delivery times are usually 4-6 weeks.
Other clothes shown:
- Jeans from Rubato
- Jacket bespoke from Ciardi, in Anglo-Italian cloth
- Brown suede belt from Rubato
- Watch from Cartier, Chronoflex in yellow gold
*Newton, co-founder **Chamberlain, London store manager
