Bespoke and ready-made shirts share the range at Charvet, the Paris house founded in 1838 and associated with Place Vendôme. Ties and accessories extend the same house's offering beyond shirts, without requiring a bespoke commission. David & John Anderson (DJA) represents Scottish shirting cloth, following a Glasgow business established in 1822 and used by London's West End tailors. Houston's Hamilton Shirts cuts bespoke and ready-made shirts in its Texas workroom, continuing the family business established in 1883.
Charvet is a Paris shirtmaker founded in 1838 and long associated with Place Vendôme, specializing in bespoke and ready-to-wear shirts, ties and accessories. Chanel acquired the house in July 2026, adding a major ownership change to an otherwise unusually continuous tailoring history.
Best for The bespoke shirt pilgrimage of a lifetime.
Charvet has made shirts since 1838 and is generally recognized as the world's oldest French shirtmaker — founded by Christofle Charvet, whose father had charge of Napoleon's wardrobe, and installed for over a century at 28 Place Vendôme, where it remains the square's last shirtmaker. The client book is its own history: Proust wrote about the house, Churchill and Kennedy wore its collars, and the bespoke floors upstairs still cut shirts to individual paper patterns from an inventory of thousands of fabrics, including the one-piece collar for which connoisseurs make the trip. The shirts are made in Saint-Gaultier, France. In July 2026 the house was acquired by Chanel, placing it within a group committed to preserving métiers. This is not e-commerce territory: the point is the appointment, the fabric wall, and a shirt cut for no one else.
Book the bespoke appointment ahead and allow time at the fabric wall — choosing among the thousands of shirtings is the visit's actual luxury.
The other great Scottish shirting name, founded in Glasgow in 1822. DJA was the preferred fabric of London's West End tailors and supplied the British military for over a century.
Best for Bold-striped and checked Scottish shirting woven by Albini
Jermyn Street shirtmaker founded 1899 by Charles Hilditch and W. Graham Key; rebuilt after Blitz bombing damage and now trading from Jermyn Street. Karl Lagerfeld was a longtime customer said to own over 1,000 of its shirts.
Best for Classic English two-fold cottons.
Hilditch and Key was founded in 1899 by Charles F. Hilditch and W. Graham Key, both previously trained at the Duke Street shirtmaker Harman's. The business opened first on Tottenham Court Road before relocating to Jermyn Street and opening a Paris branch on Rue de Rivoli in 1907. Its original Jermyn Street premises were destroyed during the Blitz; the firm operated from temporary quarters before moving permanently to number 39. The shirtmaker became known among a bespoke-menswear clientele that reportedly included Karl Lagerfeld, said to have owned more than 1,000 of the brand's high-collared shirts. Now past its 125th year, Hilditch and Key continues to operate from Jermyn Street, combining bespoke and made-to-measure shirtmaking with ready-to-wear.
Savile Row tailor at 11 Savile Row, London, tracing to an 1809 breeches-making business; became H. Huntsman & Sons under Henry Huntsman in 1849, earned its first royal warrant in 1886, and moved to Savile Row in 1919.
Best for Legendary tailoring, heritage; iconic Savile Row bespoke shirts
Savile Row's one-button power. Since 1849 the house has cut with hunting-pink heritage in its cloth rooms and a silhouette so distinct the movies borrowed it — Kingsman was built on this shop. One button, high armholes, and the conviction that a jacket should stand at attention even when its wearer doesn't.
Eton's outfitter since 1865 — flamboyant gowns, silk dressing robes, and proper shirts. Famed too for embroidered velvet slippers and silk dressing gowns.
Rome shirting-and-hosiery shop opened on Via del Corso in December 1870 by Viennese founders; passed to the Bloch family in the early 1900s and now run by fourth-generation owner Andrew Bloch Fiorelli, selling nightwear, shirts and knitwear.
Best for Old-Rome shirts and hosiery.
Schostal opened on Rome's Via del Corso in December 1870, founded by Viennese proprietors as an undergarments, hosiery and shirting shop - its first sign read 'To the City of Vienna' in tribute to its origins. The shop passed to the Bloch family in the early 1900s and survived both the upheaval of the First World War, when its Austrian founders had to leave Italy, and later Mussolini's racial laws. It is now run by fourth-generation owner Andrew Bloch Fiorelli from a location near Campo Marzio, still selling handmade nightwear, dress shirts, knitwear, ties and hosiery in the old-world style that built its reputation.
Historic Neapolitan shirtmaker founded in 1874. Siniscalchi survived two world wars, the 1980 earthquake and the decline of local manufacturing to remain a specialist in Neapolitan shirtmaking, preserving the house’s long tailoring continuity.
Best for Since 1874 — survived wars and earthquakes, entirely hand-made bespoke in Naples.
Swedish shirtmaker tracing to August Stenstrom's 1883 Helsingborg retail business, which moved into dedicated shirt production in 1899. A Scandinavian family-owned fashion house, holding a Royal Warrant as purveyor to the Swedish Royal Court.
Best for Crisp Swedish dress shirts.
Stenstroms began as a retail business started by August Stenstrom in Helsingborg in 1883, building a reputation for high-quality shirts among the city's well-dressed clientele. In 1899, the company moved from retail into dedicated shirt manufacturing, building a factory to meet growing demand - the date the company now marks as its founding year and celebrated as a 125th-anniversary milestone in recent company communications. Today Stenstroms is counted among the oldest family-owned fashion businesses in Scandinavia, and holds a Royal Warrant as purveyor to the Royal Court of Sweden. The brand remains known for two-fold cotton shirting made with a level of construction rigor associated with Scandinavian tailoring traditions.
London shirtmaker founded in 1898 by Thomas Mayes Lewin and Geoffrey James Lewin, moved to Jermyn Street in 1903; went into administration twice (2020, 2022) before being rescued and continuing to trade online.
Best for City-of-London staples.
T.M. Lewin was founded in 1898 when Thomas Mayes Lewin, in partnership with Geoffrey James Lewin, opened a shop on Panton Street in London; the business relocated to Jermyn Street in 1903, then the center of English shirtmaking, and Thomas Mayes is credited with pioneering the pre-styled 'coat shirt.' The company built its own manufacturing facility in Southend in 1987, though it later moved toward sourcing fabric globally. The brand has had an unstable recent history: it went into administration in June 2020, closing all 66 UK stores and laying off around 700 staff, was rescued, then went into administration again in 2022 before being bought out a second time by its main lender, Petra Group.
German shirtmaker founded in Berlin in 1881 by Heinrich van Laack, inventor of the brand's three-hole button made from Trochacea deep-sea snail shell; production moved to Mönchengladbach in 1953 after Heinrich Hoffmann acquired the company.
Best for German-engineered dress shirts.
Van Laack was founded in Berlin in 1881 by Heinrich van Laack, who set out, by the company's own account, to manufacture the best shirt achievable at the time. One of his lasting contributions was the brand's three-hole button, cut from the shell of the Trochacea deep-sea snail and attached with a button shank designed to add durability beyond a standard flat button; the design was refined further in the 1930s using improved shell material. The Second World War interrupted the Berlin-based operation, and afterward Heinrich Hoffmann acquired the van Laack brand and relocated production to Mönchengladbach in 1953, establishing the city as the company's long-term home and manufacturing base, the same city listed as its production origin today. The company has continued to position itself around precision shirtmaking, marketed under its 'Meisterwerk' line as an emphasis on craftsmanship and fit rather than mass production. Over more than 140 years, the brand has kept its identity tied to two specific, verifiable details: a distinctive natural-shell button and a single, named German manufacturing city that has remained constant since the 1950s.
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