Budd – the bespoke shirts company – has just opened a pop-up shop in Lower Sloane Street.
Senior shirt cutter Darren Tiernan talks to Cally Squires.
The full bespoke service starts with the customer describing what occasion they want to wear the shirt for.
Nine times out of ten it is for business.
Firstly we measure them up, taking about 20 basic measurements, before moving on to the all-important collar choice.
A paper pattern for each customer
For bespoke shirt orders we cut each individual their own pattern out of paper, which we then keep afterwards for our records.
For the bespoke service there is a minimum order of four shirts. With made-to-measure, people can just order one.
Because we keep the pattern, people can easily order more anytime they want to.
Choose your cuff style
In terms of cuff choice for the bespoke shirts, we show several different options.
There's the button cuff, which can be made with one, two or three buttons.
There's the cocktail cuff, made famous by James Bond, or a double cuff with a square or round ďŹnish. The world is your oyster.
Monogramming is very popular, especially with our customers overseas in America, and itâs all done by hand, not by machine. It tends to be subtle, just two or three letters on the left waist as a little detail.
Fabrics from Switzerland
When it comes to fabrics, there must be 10,000 different swatches.
We use a Swiss mill called Lumo and theyâve introduced some very nice linen cottons, which are great for summer.
They also do a great âlinenlookâ fabric, because some people donât like the idea of creased linen, even though thatâs the beauty of it.
We try to use ethically sourced pure mother-of-pearl buttons in standard size or extra thick, which are really strong.
We look to get bespoke orders completed at the moment within eight to ten weeks.
Magic at the Hampshire workshop
Once weâve made the pattern and cut all the fabric here in London, we send it to our workshop in Andover in Hampshire.
Thatâs where the magic happens.
We have a dozen ladies there who are worth their weight in gold. Theyâve got decades of experience between them.
They do all the turnings by hand, working on singleneedle ďŹat machines, which is a proper bespoke service in my opinion.
For made to measure, a customer will try on our house styles â the classic, tailored and slimâďŹt styles. Then weâll make the sleeves to ďŹt, and they can choose which style of collar they want.
Bespoke shirts from £325 at the Budd pop-up shop, 93 Lower Sloane Street.
To find out more about Budd London, read here.
This article was published in Sloane Square magazine which you can read here.
To meet the man behind Mountain Warehouse, read here.
