Custom Shirts

There are just two streets in the heart of London that are synonymous with that internationally famous commodity –English style. They are of course Saville Row for the best in gentlemen’s suiting, and, to complete the effect a trip needs to be taken down to Jermyn Street to ensure the quality of the custom shirt matches the suit.

Or should it? Certainly the place itself still looks authentic enough with plenty of famous names proclaiming their genuine (or in some cases slightly exaggerated) heritage in the shirt making business. Indeed, it is easy to imagine the legions of experienced shirt makers behind the smart shop fronts producing the style that has defined The custom Shirt for so long.

This,however is where we start running into a few problems. London is not the cheapest city in the world to stay or indeed to run a business. The competition is hot, the pressure is on, and the result, unfortunately is that none of those Custom shirts retailers actually manufacturer in London, and indeed only one of them is still producing shirts in the UK.

But, at the end of the day –does it really matter? Well according to Kerry Ford at Russell and Hodge , yes it does, very much so. In fact so much so that he moved his business out of his beloved Jermyn Street, where it was the only company manufacturing on the premises, a short distance away precisely so that he could still continue that tradition.

And the really good news is that, because he now has a very pleasant shop front in Windmill Street, W1 –where you can actually see the shirts being made –the business is now opening up to individual shoppers who know a real Custom shirts when they see one, even if it is now made in Windmill St.

The company continues to produce bespoke shirts for many of the famous names that appear over Jermyn Street shops, but is now building up an enviable list of its own customers.

Says Kerry Ford: “I served an apprenticeship of ten years with one of the great shirt makers so I know what makes a proper bespoke tailor made shirt –and there is a lot more to it than most people realise”.

Kerry Ford is the Managing Director of Russell & Hodge. He has been making bespoke Custom shirts for 20 years. Kerry takes pride in the traditions of English shirt making and you can see this for yourself if you visit the Russell & Hodge shop. At the back of the shop are two banks of sewing machines skilfully staffed by Kerry’s team.

“Did you know that, apart from Russell & Hodge, there is only one other bespoke shirt maker manufacturing in the UK –the rest are produced mainly in India and the Far East. It’s actually getting quite difficult to find the real thing. You don’t have to know anything about shirts to sell them”.

So, what is there to know? What is that indefinable quality that Kerry and his team provide for their loyal customer base? Well you need to begin at the beginning –and that means the cotton. As Kerry says: ‘You can grow cotton in many countries in the world to varying standards, but we use only two fold Egyptian or Sea Island cotton because it is quite simply, the best”.

Then it has to be woven correctly, which in turn means it has to go to the finest mills for this to be done properly. There may only be three or four cotton mills left in Lancashire, but Kerry knows where they are, along with some top mills in Italy and Switzerland which he believes come up to the required standard.

Rather like a wine buff sniffing a cork, Kerry reckons he could almost trace the cotton he buys back to the field it came from. “Ask the average shirt maker where their cotton comes from and where their fabric is woven and 90% of them won’t have a clue – but the good ones will”.

But this is just the first step. The next involves the finishing.

“Cotton is always difficult to iron, but if the fabric hasn’t been finished properly you will never get it to look good. There are specialist finishing mills that will enhance the colours of the fabric and ensure the cloth shrinks correctly. I am afraid to say that the cloth comes out of India and the Far East just isn’t finished to this standard, and we can very definitely tell the difference”.

Now there is no denying that the pursuit of this quality does not come cheap, but, on the same basis a low cost shirt will not last like a Russell & Hodge product.

“You can buy a cheap shirt that might OK to the untrained eye the first time you have it on, but after the first wash it will be a mess. Our shirts will only get better with time. The material will get softer and we allow for shrinkage so it keeps its fit. All our shirts go through the machine twice for extra strength. You can buy machines that are specially designed to produce something that looks like a proper Custom shirts, with plenty of detailing, but most of it is just for show. It’s not the real thing”.

Or take the humble button. Or perhaps not so humble. Kerry’s are made from Mother of Pearl. “It is easy to save £2 a shirt by using elastic buttons, but it isn’t the same thing”. It is this eye for details that has lead to Russell and Hodge making shirts for a list of stars that sounds like an Oscar nominations role call. There is Bill Murray, Kevin Cline, Mickey Rouke, Anthony Hopkins, Keith Richards, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, and Tom Hanks, who can soon be seen sporting a Russell and Hodge in the Da Vinci Code film.

There is a similar story to tell in the sporting world with names such as English cricket hero Freddie Flintoff, boxers Lennox Lewis and Christ Eubank and style icon (and footballer) David Beckham who actually got married in a shirt made by Kerry and his crew. Make no mistake, these guys know how to look good and it is the expertise of the measurers and cutters in Kerry Ford’s unique establishment that produce the understated English style that is the quintessential Custom shirts.