I have been a Proper Cloth customer for almost a decade now (first shirt ordered in March, 2014) and it has been my go-to shirtmaker for about 80% of all my shirts in the past couple of years. I’ve ordered flannels, seersuckers, linens, linen-cotton blends etc. and most have turned out very well. Proper Cloth is the perfect solution for anyone who has any of these issues/problems:
- Doesn’t live in a large city with access to custom shirtmakers.
- Has a body that requires fit adjustments on normal company’s shirt patterns.
- Wants a different collar style, fabric or button than whatever is chosen by the standard brand’s designer that season.
Personally I had all three of those issues, I didn’t live in a city large enough for access to real custom shirtmaking, most shirts I used to buy were too big in the waist when my chest fit correctly and required additional fees to have the sides “taken in”, often I’d want a different collar style than what was available, and also didn’t like such limited fabric selections.
History
Proper Cloth was founded in 2008 by Seph Skerritt in New York City. He wanted to create a company that offered high-quality, custom-made shirts that fit perfectly and were more affordable than traditional custom shirts. After years of consistent growth, they launched Tailored Clothing in 2019 which expanded their lineup from just custom shirts, to shirts, suits, jackets, trousers and outerwear.
What to Buy
While I have purchased two sportcoats and a pair of chinos from Proper Cloth, shirts are still my go-to purchase.
How to Get Measurements for Your Shirt
Proper Cloth has four different ways to have your measurements taken, Smart Sizes, Measure Your Body, Measure a Shirt, and Mail a Shirt to be Measured. You can click here to go to the page and get started.
- Smart Sizes – they ask you a bunch of questions and generate a shirt size for you at the end.
- Measure Your Body – you measure around a bunch of your body parts and input the numbers. (you can purchase a measuring tape from PC for $5 and they do have solid instructional videos on how to measure)
- Measure a Shirt – a smoother option if you have shirt you already like the fit of, and would just like to replicate it/make minor adjustments.
- Mail a Shirt to be Measured – a similar situation as above, but they do all the work and send the shirt back to you. (this is what I did).
Any of these options work, and because of their “Perfect Fit Guarantee” you don’t have to get it 100% right the first time. (the closer you can get the better all things being equal though).
It took me one additional shirt remake before I was satisfied with my fit from sending a sample shirt to them, but once you get your fit locked in, you can reuse it for each additional shirt you purchase, so the upfront time investment really pays off after your 2nd and 3rd shirt.
Shirt Design Considerations
Once you have your fit confirmed, you need to design your shirt. I won’t go into all the details to consider while designing a shirt in this post, if you are interested in an article about that, you can visit my Proper Cloth Custom Shirt Guide here. Alternatively, you can browse Proper Cloth’s fabric and collar options to decide if they provide the options you want in a custom shirt first. If all you want is some basic tips or guidelines, some universal considerations for going down the custom shirt design path are:
- business or casual
- tuck or no tuck
- All Season, Fall/Winter, or Spring/Summer
- Color
- Fabric type
- Collar type
- Button type
If you aren’t sure of any of these considerations for your shirt, my Guide will give you the answers/recommendations you need.
Overall, after +30 shirts over the past almost decade, Proper Cloth is an excellent choice if you’re interested in expanding outside the ready-to-wear Ralph Lauren / J Crews of the world.