What makes our shirt business different

Collarreplacement.com is designed very differently to most fashion companies. Repairs are a core pillar. We are willing to repair dress shirts and our business model does not rely on you buying more and more clothing. When you send us your shirts to get the collars and cuffs replaced, we ship the shirts back to you in the same packaging you use to ship to us. Most of our customers don’t buy a new box when they ship their shirts to us. Instead, they reuse packaging from a previous ecommerce order. This is a fascinating paradigm. Every day consumers receive millions of parcels and shipments. For the most part the packaging is quickly discarded and treated as one time use. Meanwhile new carboard and plastic is being minted to supply the voracious appetite of ecommerce. A small number of parcels get a second chance in the event of a return or exchange. Few businesses provide you with an opportunity to make use of your ecommerce packaging that would otherwise be discarded. This is something we extend to both the alteration and the made to measure side of the business. When you get a new made to measure shirt from us, the way it works is that you ship your existing best fit shirt in and then we ship back your brand-new shirts based on those measurements along with the original shirt.

Apart from the box itself the internal packing also reduces waste as redundant plastic collar formers are absent. This not only minimizes the amount of rubbish but also the amount of space required allowing us to pass cost savings on to our customers. A general philosophy undergirding our shirt making process is that we want the investment in shirt quality to be maximized and to avoid diversions that don’t add to the quality or value of the shirt. This is why we use mother of pearl buttons and 100% natural fibers such as cotton and linen while synthetic materials such as polyester and spandex. Because fabric and button quality enhance the value of the shirt whilst extra layers of plastic in the packaging don’t. Using natural fibers and buttons serves a double purpose as the lack of plastic makes the shirts much more sustainable.

Our made to measure shirts are designed with repairs in mind. Unlike most ready to wear brands we can supply you with an extra collar and set of cuffs when you buy the shirt. Depending on usage this can add four or five years to the life of a shirt. So, you’re getting much better value for money. And since these are cut from the same cloth as the shirt you don’t have to worry about trying to find a matching fabric. You can even get two pairs if you so wish! Two spare buttons are sewn onto the inside of the placket, a small for the sleeve placket and larger one for the main placket. The collar stays are removable letting you replace or substitute easily without needing to tear up the whole collar. Once you’ve had a made to measure shirt made once, those measurements are saved letting you easily reorder without needing to ship a shirt in again further avoid unnecessary packaging.

Perhaps the greatest gambit in terms of enhancing the longevity of your shirts is the hedge against outgrowing your size. On the repair side of the business one of the services we offer is changing the size of your shirt collar and or cuffs. This means that if your neck size increases by half an inch and you need a larger collar you no longer need to throw away the shirt as instead you can enlarge the size. There are two main reasons a garment reaches the end of its useful life. One is that it is frayed or worn out. The other is that your size changes. We are able to mitigate both. The latter is particularly important since given that with many folks wearing formalwear sparingly, the danger of outgrowing your formal clothing is greater than wearing it out. Case in point are tuxedo shirts. Tuxedo shirts are expensive and usually only worn for occasions such as weddings, black tie events, galas and formal cocktails. When worn they are not worn for the entire day. An average owner of a tuxedo shirt probably only wears it eight hours per year. To have to buy a new shirt after having only worn it a few times is a shame especially in light of the fact that tuxedo shirts tend to cost more than most dress shirts. Given that the fabric is white it is very easy to change the collar and cuffs. Once you mitigate the effects of your size changing you should never have to buy another tuxedo shirt again as your existing tuxedo shirt can become the gift that keeps on giving.

Another aspect worth considering is how you can combine our shirt alteration service with vintage or thrift purchases. The second-hand clothing market in the United States has surged. Walking around New York City one notices more of these stores popping up. Many of them have become rather specialized and niche. When it comes to buying quality designer shirts second hand a key frustration is size. What happens is that many high-end brands and heritage shirtmakers in order to reduce the inventory risk they face tend to reduce the number of sizing gradation and sleeve-collar combinations. Typically, they make one sleeve length per collar size. The fit is also standardized. In both cases they air on the side of too big or too long since that can be altered. Given the price point they sell at retail, alterations are often factored into the price. When you buy a shirt at a designed boutique, they can measure you on site and then get the shirt altered to fit closer to your size. When shopping second hand such services are not offered on site. You find a shirt you like but it’s just too baggy which can be a persistent source of frustration. Given the meaningful discount at which second hand shirts trade it worth it to send the shirt you bought to us for alterations to adjust it to your fit and still be better off financially than if you bought it firsthand.

If you want to skip the frustration of not being able to find clothing in your size entirely you can opt for our made to measure service. This guarantees the shirts will fit when you first get them without requiring additional alterations. The high level of customization we offer such cocktail cuffs and the wide range of fabric patterns on offer begets a product that rivals and exceeds what you might find second hand in terms of both fit, condition and creativity. The cuff styles found of the rack are rather boring. Mostly single or double button barrel cuff and a little bit of French cuffs though increasingly rare. There are so many brands yet many of them are conformist, repetitive, duplicative. We offer cocktail cuffs also known are turnback cuffs as an option for all our shirts whether a custom shirt you order from us or on the repair side of the business whether replacing an existing shirt cuff. We provide you with a cuff that becomes a conversation starter, a fashion statement and creatively diverges from the status quo. Fabric wise, we go out of our way to source patterns and colors that are less common and therefore produced in smaller volumes. Such colors include green which is rare shirting color. Pattern wise we emphasize multi-stripe when it comes to geometric patterns. We take inspiration from heritage high end shirtmakers from the previous century that somewhere along the way lost that creative spark and strayed from their muse. As far as non-geometric patterns are concerned, we rely on jacquard weave fabrics to convey paisley, floral and leave patterns without needing to print on the fabrics. By turning upside down many of the fundamental assumptions underpinning dress shirts and daring to draft bold fabric patterns, we seek rekindle menswear and find a way back to that muse spawning a dress shirt revival. One must be able to bow to the past but not be bound by it. Like any work of art or craftsmanship our collectible shirts contains traces of inspiration and yet are something fundamentally new and non-conformist.