Tai Pan Row Shirt Review - Part III and the Q&As

Happy 2020!

To comply with Blogger policy, obscene content has been censored. The reader should focus on the handsome hairstylist, Roy@attire_house

[For the first part of this series, see Tai Pan Row Shirt Review - The Preview]

After an extended wait, here we are - Tai Pan Row shirt review, in reverse chronological order. Without further ado, fit photos.

Overall rating: 9/10

Fit score: 9/10
Craftsmanship score: 8.5/10 (handmade shirt as shown in this post), 9/10 (the fully machine-sewn shirt to be featured in a next post)

As per Simon Crompton tradition, real-world performance of the garment after a day's wear - to reflect the actual properties of the shirt in-the-wild (not in-the-studio).

Front. The uneven shoulders were perfectly compensated. Note also how very little pulling (basically none) existed at the chest area. 

Back

Side. Sleeves were cut with discretion - not too slim, not too wide.

Q&A for the sartorially challenged

Q. The wrinkles look horrible! Do you iron your shirts at all?

A. You are not the most intelligent reader around. What fabric does not wrinkle? Liquid crystal polymer? I mentioned that these are photos taken after a day of wear (plus 1.5 hours sitting on a barber chair). You have not been paying attention. 

 Q. So, what fabric is this?

A. Untreated pure cotton is not suitable for your income bracket. It was a 140/2 twill in pure Giza 45 Egyptian cotton from Thomas Mason, called "Super Hampton". No anti-wrinkle treatment. It wrinkles beautifully like cordovan, in soft rolls - if one loves cotton, that is.

Q. How about the excess fabric at your back? It means bad fit right?

A. You wear a Spandex diving suit to work? Quite the contrary, it means the fit was quite okay. Enough excess has been engineered into the shirt such that the wearer can move around in the shirt. In fact, the shirt is one of my most comfortable shirts.

And, actually, this was the shirt with handmade option "enabled" - an expensive option¹ with an added cost of HKD 2,500. See the following Instagram post for close-ups of the same shirt.

View this post on Instagram

@taipanrow_hk #shirt and #handmade shirt #review - coming soon... =. #bespoke #shirt #madeinhongkong #perfection #giza45 #thomasmason #cotton #shirting #shirtingfantasy

A post shared by Tom Ho (@shirtingfantasy) on Nov 7, 2019 at 1:05am PST

to be continued...


Footnote:

1: Compared to the HKD 1,150 (Feb 2019) surcharge of Ascot Chang or the making cost of Italian makers of around EUR 180-230 (Dec 2019) for a handmade shirt with about the same amount of handsewn passages, this is arguably a high-normal price.