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In Person: Blank Label Custom Shirt Review

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Blank Label “Steve Albany” check custom fit shirt – $80.00

For more on how the Blank Label ordering process works, see this post over here.

Blank Label is a pioneer in the web based custom shirt industry.  And it’s an industry that’s growing for good reason.  Play your cards right, get some deals, and the price gap starts to close between off the rack and custom.  Unless you’re shaped like SpongeBob, those department store shirts are going to need extra tailoring.  And that costs money.

These custom shirt websites are more than about fit.  Most give you the power to customize numerous details on your future shirt like the pocket, placket, etc…  And Blank Label gives you more options than most.  You want epaulets?  (No thanks.)  You can have those.  Want a monogram on the inside of the collar on slightly contrasting fabric? (Yes please.)  Done.  All at no extra charge.  Here’s how the shirt they sent this way worked out:

The Pros
  • The extra close fit:  Maybe it’s the fact they ask you for you preferred brand of off-the-rack shirt (I put in the quite slim Calibrate) but this is very, very close at the sides.  A half inch more and it’d be too tight.
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  • Three ways to measure for fit:  Estimate your own measurements, measure your favorite shirt, or (and this is the big one) they’ll send you a pre-paid envelope so you can ship them your favorite shirt.  They’ll measure it, send it back, and replicate that fit on your new one.  Whoa.
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  • The plethora of detail options:  Button colors, shoulder accents, contrast cuffs, collars, and plackets.  Almost no holds are barred.  You could make one freak of a shirt if you wanted to.  The contrast collar lining is a real nice touch, and allows a pretty cool optional monogram.  Why not, right?
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  • The email updates on progress: Blank Label generates an email every time your shirt goes from stitching, to quality control, to shipping.  Not all of us need those updates, but it’s nice to see how far along you are.
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  • The neck:  Spot on.  No big gap, no strangulation.  I’m not a 15.5 or 16.  I’m a 15.75.
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  • The follow up email:  A day or so after it arrived there was an email in my inbox from Blank Label’s “community manager.”  It was a follow up to make sure that I loved the shirt, and a reminder that if I didn’t, they want to make me another one for free (since sizing on the first go-round can be tricky.)

The Fit at the sides & through the arms is extremely close.  Details are nice, pattern is excellent.

The Cons
  • No back pleats:  There doesn’t appear to be an option to add back pleats of any kind.  And for some of us, there’s good reason to have them.  When my arms are at my sides the sleeves are fine.  Raise my arms up and it gets tight.
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  • Their website can be a little clunky:  Yeah, well, so can Dappered.com.  It’s not the smoothest to navigate through, and the virtual shirt didn’t seem to pickup all the changes I was making, but the shirt came just fine.
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  • The buttons:  It’s the only complaint I have about the bits that make up the shirt.  They seem a little thin.  But who knows, maybe they’re super high quality and will never get damaged in the wash.
The Bottom Line

The level of customization and customer service offered by Blank Label just might be unmatched.  It’s not necessary for some (I’d gladly trade those update emails for some back pleats), but if you want to create a shirt where you have control over almost every single last detail, and have the shirt making company with you every step of the way?  Blank Label is certainly worth a shot.

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Comments

  1. I love playing with their shirt customizer app. There can almost be too many options and, since it’s all free, you can be tempted to throw in more than you should. I delighted in throwing on contrast collars and cuffs until I stepped back and thought “would I wear this shirt”? 

  4. All customizations and shipping is included in the price, so in this case, the Steve Albany check is $80, and thus, whatever you do to it, it’ll be $80 (less of course if you got one of those 1/2 price gift certificates a few weeks back)

  7. I may pull the trigger on one of these this weekend for myself.  The options are amazing.   When I was playing around on their site I thought there was a box where you could send in a request they didn’t have an option for.  Back pleats put in there might work…..gonna have to try it out.

  8. I’ve been looking for a pink shirt with a contrasting white club collar forever. (Don’t ask, I couldn’t tell you why.) I may just have to get one from these guys, especially if I can find a discount or coupon.

  13. Nice shirt! Great fit. I’ll have to point this out to my father who wears shirts off the rack and doesn’t alter them at all. They look like tents on him. How is the fabric? Two-ply cotton? 

  14. Wow, $80 for a custom shirt is quite the steal. And from those pictures, it seems to fit you like a glove. I’m impressed!

    That shirt looks like it would go great under a solid color blazer by the way.

  15. Honestly, it looks even better in person.  Really love the pattern on this one, and the fit through the sides is superb.  They’ve got a ton of patterns, some of which are… odd… BUT, they’re appealing to a very, very wide demo. 

  16. Just looked this up.  Took 16 days from the time I ordered it to having it in my hands.  I think they estimate 2-4 weeks depending on workload.

  17. I think that the custom shirt site that nails it is Ratio clothing. They give you enough customization and sizing options, but not too many. I have always found it frustrating and unnecessary to enter too many measurements and parameters. Imma going to stick with them until I die (unless they fuck up the fit).

    Off the rack shirts need to be burned all: specifically, the universal problem is a neck that is WAY too tight, accompanied with a body that’s WAY too big. Fuck you, manufacturers. We can send a man to the moon, but can’t come up with a decent fitting OTR????

  18. I needed some good ol’ White shirts so I ordered two of them from B.L. I love them so much. Everything is great all through, and they rushed delivery just because! Joe, you may want to ask on the “options” or “other details” section (whatever it’s called), you may just be able to get those back pleats yet.

  19. joe don’t know if you can answer this question, but if you were to choose your next shirt to be made by blank or ratio (a few weeks back) who would you choose and why?

  21. Hey Jordon, that is new-ish. We realized most guys don’t want to measure themselves or a shirt (some do, and that’s great, makes our lives easier) so we created a Ask Our Tailors option asking for basic information and shirt dressing preferences (e.g. tucked/untucked) and now we leverage all our sizing data and our tailors’ knowledge to create a custom size for you without measuring. 

  22. Looks good, but like all custom shirt makers, the back/lower back looks a bit baggy…

    Between Biased Cut, Indochino, Maxwell’s, ModaSuite, and Alexander West, the same measurements have produced wildly different fits, so call me skeptical. 

    Joe, dare I say you have a ‘normal’/’easy to fit’ body type?  Me, I’m slim shouldered/arm’d, big chest, defined back, slight pudding in the gut.  All my shirts come out too billowy in the back, despite looking great from the front.

  23. Oh, I looked at those. It’s not a failing with Blank Label, just a failing with me that I want to try out every option

  25. DG, back pleats are definitely something we can help with. Just drop us an email (sayhi@blanklabel.com) with your order and we’ll manually adjust it. Hope that helps. Fan | Chief Shirt @ Blank Label

  27. I would cut one shirt from each company in half, then wear one half from each at the same time (Yer ma boy King Solomon.)  Now, as to not be too gutless, I’ll say this…  I’m impressed with this shirt from Blank Label.  Meanwhile, when the ratio/clothing review happened, I said that one from ratio was my new favorite shirt.  The ratio is still my favorite shirt.

    By in large, custom shirts are a splurge for myself and most other guys who read this small corner of the internet.  So being that most will buy one, maybe two of these types of shirts, it all really comes down to precise specifics.  What color, fabric, pattern, details, whatever.  Blank Label can do somethings ratio can’t, and vice versa.

  29. Back pleats! No wonder my shirt from Uniqlo fits so tight when I move my arms in certain ways. So THAT’S what they’re for.

    If I did the custom thing and the company allowed it, I’d definitely send that Uniqlo shirt for the measurements though. Damn, that shirt. THAT SHIRT.

  30. I have a question about the fit through the sides. I can tell that it fits really well, and I sometimes consider having some of my shirts tailored so that they fit better in that area. But then, even with my shirts that fit me really, really well, that part of the shirt inevitably ends up ballooning out a bit because through out the day I’ll have to crawl under my desk, or reach for something high, or whatever, and then it doesn’t have that “hugging the body” look. Doesn’t the same thing pretty much happen even if a shirt is custom tailored around that area? Doesn’t seem worth it when the normal course of your day will pull the shirt out a bit anyway.

    Unless you re-tuck your shirt in several times a day, I guess!

  31. Uh, I think that just depends on what size you are. Obviously, off the rack shirts won’t fit everyone. For a variety of shirts the body and neck are okay for me, for some the neck is a little big, occasionally a little small. YMMV, because you are not the exact size and shape that I am!

  32. This may be mentioned somewhere, but do these come with removable collar stay pockets?  This is something I’ve seen often overlooked with the custom manufacturers, and is huge for durability.  Every shirt I’ve had with built in (non-removable) collar stays/form was junk within 2 washes.

  33. he said they’re both good but he likes the ratio shirt better.  I’d say the answer was tactful, not gutless. 

  36. We have a pretty wide range of fabrics, everything from single ply 70s to two ply 130s. Hope that helps. Fan | Chief Shirt @ Blank Label

  38. It’d be great to see a comprehensive wrap-up of the most popular custom shift retailers out there.  Any idea who has the largest market share?  Seems like there dozens of these guys popping up recently.

    I’ve been buying from tailorstore.com for the last ~3yrs or so (before that tried Jantzen and Ravi).  Very impressed with them — quite easy-to-use website with extensive customization.  Think their low-end starts at $55 (but adding removable collar stays + most of the decent fabrics will take you up to a similar $80 range).

    Looks like Blank Label’s a newer entrant to the field, but seems to be pretty business savvy (or at least have a good PR guy) judging by the number of media mentions…

  39. GiltCity is currently running a “$60 for $120” special on their site. It’s supposed to be a “National” deal, but I only see it coming up under the Chicago listings.

    *And if you’re not already a member of GiltCity, if you use the following link to join, you’ll get 40% off your first purchase. So, you get the Blank Label deal for only $38.

    http://www.giltcity.com/invite/30593503a7xq3keanp4p

  41. Just got mine in the mail. Same fabric as joes shirt in this article. Surprisingly quicky shipping. It should be known that not only are back pleats available but they also do not put in darts even when selecting the slim cut. Slim without darts is like cookies without milk. I ordered using measurements from one of my other custom shirts and the shirt came out spot on. It should also be known that arm width and hip measurements are not available for input on the shirt customizer. Despite that they still managed to nail it for me (YMMV).

    Soon as blank label adds at least darts to the options I’ll be back to order a few more shirts, till then I’m stuck using their competition.

    Overall very happy! Thanks for the headsup Joe!

  42. I see the fit looks really nice but is all
    that for $80? Does it include shipping and all alterations? Was it really a
    pain using the website? I get my shirts on shirtsmyway.com and I never had problems with the result. It’s
    impressive how you can easily navigate through the website and just gets the
    shirt tailored and shipped the way I want it. I think prices starts at $75?
    Somewhere that range I think 75-80.

  43. OR, have a personal style advisor come right to you to take your measurements, review fabrics, etc, all with the ease of ordering online once your first order is personally delivered to ensure a great fit. J Hilburn has been named the #1 Dress Shirt in America, offering everything from socks to tuxedos! No contest gentlemen. http://www.dawncullinan.jhilburn.com

  45. Jason- as a personal style advisor and consultant with J Hilburn, I personally meet with clients to get to know their style and wishes. From there I can make the selection easy for you, with the help of in-person fabric and product samples. I’d be happy to work with you. http://www.DawnCullinan.JHilburn.com