Recreating the look - Steve McQueen relaxes in a camel jumper

The blogger's standby for style posts of this sort is Steve McQueen. His clothes are never complicated and he always looks stylish and relaxed. This is his secret, of course. Achieve a simple look and carry it off unselfconsciously. Suppliers' details below.

Suppliers
Albam

Sander & Sanders 

Tripl Stitched

Spoke

Buying a British-made shirt: a selection from TEK, Smyth & Gibson, Grosvenor and Tripl Stitched

TEK

TEK is a collaboration between New Future Graphic, Timothy Everest and Eley Kishimoto. Drawing on the best of British design and manufacture, these shirts are made in London.  Hand screen printed cotton cloth from the Eley Kishimoto design Studio, Brixton, is tailored by Timothy Everest tailors in Spitalfields. The finished product is manufactured and packaged under art direction from New Future Graphic. I had a quick look at Best of Britannia recently and they seem nicely-made from quality fabric. I hope to have a closer look soon and, if I do, I'll report back.

TEK has other projects planned for the future, so watch this space. 

The first range is scheduled to hit selected stores in Jan 2015. 

Smyth & Gibson

I recently received some beautifully-made shirts from Northern Ireland's Smyth & Gibson, based in Derry, Londonderry. It's good to see the products of such a manufacturing heritage. The cut, fabrics and construction are of the highest standard.

The shirts can be bought online here.

Tripl Stitched
I've written recently about these London shirtmakers, whose products are of such high quality. Here's how I reviewed their shirts. Watch out for a beautiful AW14 collection with indigo-dyed shirts.

Tripl Stitched

Go to Tripl Stitched to buy or for information.

Grosvenor Shirts

This is another brand of British-made shirts I reviewed recently. High quality and, in general, bright and colourful.

Grosvenor Shirts

See Grosvenor Shirts for more information.

There are many more suppliers and manufacturers of British-made shirts appearing and it's good to see this revival of traditional skills appearing all over the country. Do you have any favourite British-made shirts?

Tripl Stitched - quality shirts made in London

Tripl Stitched is a new menswear brand that makes shirts in Enfield, London, England. And what wonderful shirts they are. When I first heard from them I quickly gained the impression of a company that puts much effort and pride into what it does. I commonly find such passion in those committed to UK manufacture and the happy result is always high quality, well-designed products.

Here is what Ben Marden of Tripl Stitched told me,

'... please have a close look at the seams as we are using traditional American and Japanese machines that make a a fully flat felled seam (so folded in and enclosed with no raw edges). The armhole seams are the classic wide single needle like old Brooks Brothers and in the side seams we use a very rare triple needle machine (hence the name) where we reverse the chain stitch for more comfort. And this also adds a small visual touch to show our point of difference. We also use only cross stitching for the real mother of pearl buttons and our button holes are on a special modern Japanese machine that makes a tiny pearl stitch like a suiting button hole, so again rare on shirts apart from the real high end ones like Turnbull & Asser.'

The fabrics are lovely, some from Italy, but the chambray prints are designed and printed in London, so with those you acquire a shirt totally designed and made in London (see, for example, the contour-printed shirt above, bottom right). 

I've been able to try some of the shirts. They're cut not too full, not too fitted, and in a way that is comfortable and flattering, but somehow different. Clearly, much thought has gone into cut and design, as Ben went on to tell me,

'I have a collection of vintage shirts from the the early 1900's to the 1950's where I've borrowed lots of old detailing and we are very lucky to have a great master pattern cutter in London who is able to work with me to get these three dimensional cuts that just make you feel good without knowing quite why. That, I always feel, is the sign of a really good cut'.

This is a label that really deserves to do well. Shirt prices are from £95 with free delivery - extremely reasonable given the quality, London provenance and outstanding design. They're built to last - you get what you pay for. See Tripl Stitched for more information and to buy these great shirts.

(Images from Tripl Stitched).