By Aleks Cvetkovic.
As I grow a little bit older, and perhaps a little fussier (or grumpier?), I find myself returning most often to those craftspeople who are consistent in what they deliver. This is one of the reasons that I’ve been a return customer of Wil Whiting’s, alongside how well the shirts work on me.
When I first decided to place an order, two things drew me to him. Firstly, I’d covered Wil for a couple of stories in the past and I liked his perspective, and his total dedication to his craft, which Simon outlined in this story a few years ago.
Moreover, I’d struggled to find a shirtmaker who I found could take an English aesthetic and contemporise it. For a long time, I wore made-to-order Drake’s shirts with long point collars (I prefer pointed collars to spreads and cutaways), but always found the collars too soft for a smart look.
I also had a handful of bespoke shirts from Turnbull & Asser, which didn’t work for me. The collars were like cardboard, with no softness or roll, and other Jermyn Street shirtmakers I’ve tried seemed to make them the same way. I tried Luca Avitabile too, whose shirts are lovely, but I was looking for something sharp and architectural, rather than soft and easy going.
So Wil’s brief was straightforward: a clean-looking shirt, fitted through the waist, with a pointed (but not exaggerated) collar that would work both with and without a tie. I also wanted single cuffs with gauntlet buttons so I could fold the cuffs back – I rarely wear double cuffs these days, except for black tie or morning wear.
Wil requires four shirts for an initial order, and I’ve learned over the years not to go crazy with fabrics. We chose classic poplins in cream, mid-blue, a sky blue Bengal stripe, and a chocolate and white butcher’s stripe.
Incidentally, I’d recommend anyone starting to shape a capsule wardrobe of shirts to go with the first three – cream is just as useful as white, but softer and warmer, while classic mid-blues and blue stripes will take you anywhere. The chocolate butcher’s stripe was my idea of a bit of fun, but I wear a lot of brown tones so it’s been very useful.
The collar, as you can probably tell, was a crucial marker of success. So we spent a lot of time talking about the look I was trying to achieve, and how I wanted my collars to work. The goal was something that would look razor sharp with a tie, but also roll and stand proud beneath a jacket’s collar when worn open, without collapsing.
To get this right, Wil was meticulous. He drafted the collar pattern and fitted it on me twice, before we proceeded to create a trial shirt (the only other shirtmaker I know who cuts down collars like this on the customer is Charvet in Paris, and then only once). He advised a particular kind of lightweight fusing for the collar’s construction (and that of the cuffs to match). This, combined with a relatively tall collar stand, creates a collar that holds tension beautifully – and therefore stands proud.
The collars are all the same, and I find it particularly pleasing the way the points sit just on the body, whether I’m wearing them with a tie or not.
After Wil shaped the collar at the fitting stages, it was applied to my wearable trial shirt, which Wil asked me to wash and wear over a few weeks. He considers this a critical stage to assess fabric shrinkage, precise fitting (and in particular the collar), before proceeding with an order.
At this point Wil made the points a touch longer and closer, and nudged the collar stand up just a touch to better frame my face. It was a lengthy process but in getting this right, first time, he created a blueprint for my shirts that just works. For every order since, we’ve used the same collar and cuffs.
The majority of my shirts are partially handmade (where hand stitching is used in key areas like the armholes and yoke, as well as buttonholes), but I’ve also had a heavy oxford shirt with pleated-patch chest pockets machine-stitched (pictured above).
There’s no tangible difference in how the shirt has performed – it’s more an aesthetic choice, Wil feeling that casual styles can sometimes benefit from machine stitching. In fact, I’d say the cleanness of Wil’s look, and the sharpness of line that he’s able to work into his shirts is one of his greatest strengths.
We’ve built on that initial batch of ‘sensible’ shirts, with a selection of fabrics that – to me at least – feel quietly luxurious. Highlights include a shirt in cream-coloured Cashmerello Lite, Alumo’s ultra-lightweight cotton and cashmere mix, which feels like silk next to the skin. And three shirts in Caccioppoli’s breezy cotton-linen Zephyr (see the brown stripe, pictured), which looks like slubbed silk.
These have become absolute favourites. The Zephyr feels cooler to wear than pure linen, and it creases less. I’d never have tried these fabrics independently, if it weren’t for Wil steering me towards them.
After two years of investing a significant sum of money in a collection of shirts, I feel I’ve chosen wisely. We’ve never had a misfire, and I’ve not felt the need to micromanage the decisions Wil makes. He went to great lengths to get the pattern and construction of my shirts right, and that’s made the re-ordering process very straightforward – “same again please, but change the fabric”.
That said, we have just embarked on my first overshirt project, a piece for summer in chocolate Solbiati Art du Lin. This will be roomy (as you’d expect) with two pleated patch-and-flap chest pockets, a subtle S-shaped hem with small darts at each side seam, and a collar with slightly shorter points, designed to be popped.
When someone asks for a different type of shirt in this way, Wil starts the process from scratch. A new pattern is required, so the same tasks of drafting the pattern and making a wearable trial shirt to road test and then tweak the pattern applies. It’s a substantial amount of time and work again.
In terms of cost, these shirts are at the top of the spectrum, starting at £900 per shirt. But this reflects the particular level of craft and care, the fine make Simon covered as well as the perfecting of the collar and fit.
A single shirt takes an average of 20 hours to sew before allocating time to cutting, fitting, re-cutting, fitting again (as many times as Wil sees fit) and finishing. Wil also cuts everything himself and always sees clients himself. His small workshop produces around 300 shirts per year, and he’s intimately involved in the process of crafting each one.
With all this in mind, I see working with Wil as an investment in both time and money, to secure the highest level of quality. If that’s important to other readers, then in my experience, working with Wil Whiting won’t disappoint.
Other clothes shown:
Look one:
- Midnight-blue Art du Lin bespoke suit by Atelier Arena
- Horn sunglasses by Adret
- Chocolate brown shantung tie by Drake’s
- Wool and silk pocket square by Drake’s
- Brown faux-croc leather horsebit loafers by Horatio
- Cartier Santos Carrée 2960
Look two:
- ‘Fellini’ sunglasses by Jacques Marie Mage
- Bridle leather belt by Budd
- Cream Lot 1 jeans by Rubato
- Brown faux-croc leather horsebit loafers by Horatio
- Watch as above
