ManuelRacim Makes a Shirt With Your Name On It

Manhattan has a new destination for made-to-measure shirts––a small shop in Tribeca called ManuelRacim––and after trying the company's service for ourselves, we suggest you run, no, race to take advantage of this very personable atelier. Conceived by co-founders Manuel Guardiola, above, and Racim Allouani, the store offers all the perks of a bespoke experience with absolutely none of the stuffiness. Whether you make an appointment or walk in off the street, you're guaranteed a warm welcome––and once you've had the pleasure of designing your own shirts, you may never buy ready-mades again.

A great shirt starts with great fabric, and ManuelRacim has dozens of European cottons and linens to obsess over. In our case, the deed was done: we'd visited the store a few days earlier and spotted this cotton print, above, tucked among the swatches. It was love at first sight.

Fabric in hand, it was time to work with ManuelRacim's in-house stylist to be measured (prominent collar bones, freakishly long arms) and to choose the details. A print this bold doesn't need much embellishment, so we took her excellent advice and opted for a small, trim, modern-looking collar and simple barrel cuffs, above; no chest pocket; a clean French placket; and very handsome, dark grey buttons.  

We always ask for monograms on custom shirts, and ManuelRacim is happy to oblige. Our stylist showed us fonts and colors, above, and suggested positioning the initials on our left cuff rather than the torso, where the fabric's pattern would probably render them invisible. 

Two weeks later, we were back in the store, trying on our new shirt. ManuelRacim works hand-in-hand with a small French factory, guaranteeing short production times––and they've streamlined the process so effectively, they can sell made-to-measure items at lower prices than ready-mades found elsewhere. In short, this little shirt company offers lots of bang for your buck, not to mention smiling service, without any nose-in-the-air attitude. We're thrilled with how our first shirt turned out: it fits perfectly, of course, and has that distinctive air of being a one-of-a-kind garment, never to be seen on anyone else. But don't just read about ManuelRacim––pay them a visit soon, and indulge in your own healthy dose of personalized style. 

Photographs by Noël Sutherland.

Hamilton's 1883: Unstuffing the Stuffed Shirt

This happens to be a great moment for menswear. FA2L is thrilled, of course, but also curious: why such an explosion of talent at this particular time? Cultural anthropologists would likely point to cross-pollinating effects of globalization (and they're probably right), but we suspect something more visceral is also at work: Recent generations of designers, having grown up in the shadow of a greedy, overbearing corporate culture, are literally starving for self-expression.

The result is options, and plenty of them, from aggressive, futuristic tailoring (think Alexander McQueen or Raf Simons) to frankly nostalgic reworkings of beloved classics. Many traditional brands tap into this youthful energy by hiring young designers and setting them loose in the archives, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes, true love ensues (Thom Browne's quirky Black Fleece collection for Brooks Bros is obviously born from a match made in heaven) but such pairings work best when they strengthen a label's DNA. And fashion, like any human endeavor, has its own bloodlines and family trees.

Hamilton Shirts isn't as old as Brooks Bros, but it does boast an impressive pedigree. This Houston-based custom shirt maker was founded in 1883 and is now owned by fourth-generation siblings David and Kelly Hamilton. Together, they've plumbed the company's past and launched a ready-to-wear collection, 1883, combining vintage details, beautiful fabrics and decidedly unstuffy styling. There are distinctive Texan touches, including tissue-thin cotton utility shirts with button tabs (for rolled-up sleeves), trim madras button-downs and a range of lightweight popovers, like the linen version shown here. And since everything's designed for Houston's brutal heat, Hamilton's 1883 shirts can help men keep their cool just about anywhere in the world.

Wardrobe Strategies

Last summer, at the Pitti Uomo menswear expo in Florence, Brunello Cucinelli featured a knit crewneck with a woven, snap-out collar. It certainly wasn't novel (this idea pops up every few years), and, at the time, seemed like nothing more than a smart little sartorial gimmick. In this far more turbulent season, however, there's a case to be made for clothes that can multitask. Today's consumers, if they're shopping at all, want much more bang for the buck.

Like Cucinelli's sweaters, Mel Gambert's shirts with interchangeable collars and cuffs aren't new, but they're suddenly relevant. Throughout much of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th, most fine men's shirts were sewn with a simple collar band; making the actual collars (usually starched and stiff) was handled by specialized companies and represented an enormous industry. It was only post-WWI, during the '20s, that men turned to comfortable "soft collared" shirts and abandoned detachable versions.

But Mel Gambert, a 75-year-old shirt company in Newark, NJ, has never stopped making them. Even today, the family-owned firm offers a staggering array of 400 collar styles to custom and bespoke clients (including a small, but loyal, group of detachable collar fans). Some of these men are dedicated dandies; others like how much easier it is to launder, and press, bodies and collars separately. Today's thrifty consumers may appreciate how fresh collars and cuffs can extend the lives of shirts that might otherwise be thrown away. All of which makes the interchangeable collar that rarest of things: a good investment.

www.gambertshirts.com
www.brunellocucinelli.com