New Indochino shirts and your chance to win an Accessory Set

New Indochino shirts introduced, promise to dress you for success

It's Tuesday and as we know that means we get some new goodies from our favorite custom clothier, Indochino. There had been some discussion on Indochino on the last blog post - basically some said that Indochino should stick to their core business and focus on making suits. However, from past interviews and news items it is pretty obvious that Indochino wants to be more than just a suit maker. As I understand it, they want to provide everything a man needs - from suits to shirts, ties, cardigans, shoes - many things have been mentioned. There are even considerations of moving the business offline - interesting thought. 

Anyway, today we didn't get the usual 2-3 shirts or ties, we got 16 new shirts in all patterns - stripes, gingham, madras - should be something for every taste, I guess. I have been increasingly satisfied with my last couple of Indochino shirt purchases - I used Groupon coupons for it and that was a quite good value. They actually seem to be quite durable and the fit is good. They are not paying much attention to the details, that's something I miss, but overall you get well fitting shirts. It's probably true that you can get nicer - or perhaps also cheaper - shirts somewhere else, but it's also convenient to buy everything at one place. 

Win an Accessory Set - Competition now closed!
Congratulations to Justin - you won the Accessory Set - please contact me at lorenz@indochino-review.com to claim your prize! Update: Justin didn't respond, so I had to find a new winner, EricSzeto. 

Oh by the way - I have a little giveaway for you guys. I got myself one of those Indochino Accessory sets (including a tie, cuff links, tie clip, pocket square) that are being sold on Groupon every once in a while. Now this is not the most inventive idea, but just leave some kind of an Indochino related comment on this post. Could be your opinion about their shirts, suits, their plans, etc. I will select one random comment and award the winner (so no flattering is necessary ;) ), please make sure I can contact you somehow or check back the blog for the announcement. You can participate until Friday midnight GMT+1. Good luck!

Indochino Coupon Alert: Get 3 Ties for the price of 2

Indochino Solid Ties - 39$ a piece

Indochino introduced (or rather restocked) some solid ties, 6 colors all in all. They are all rather slim - 2.75 inch - and of 100% silk, according to the description. I believe all but one (the Maroon Tie) of them had been available before at some point. They are all priced at 39$, but if buy 2 and you use the coupon code THREETIES at checkout you can get a 3rd one for free. Usually you have to put all 3 items in the shopping case and then apply the coupon, I can't try it now because of some internet issues. 

Code: THREETIES (expires July 24th)

P.S. those ties do look wrinkly, don't they?

Indochino Shirt Review by Mike

After researching IC and becoming comfortable with them via a few suit purchases I decided to give them a try for shirts as well. I have NEVER been able to find an OTR shirt that fits me correctly in all areas without compromise. My chances are usually better while traveling (EU, Asia, or even Middle East) but at home in the USA – forget it. Years of sports and weights have left me with a broad chest and shoulders, relatively thick neck, and a small mid section. For reference here is my current profile directly from IC:

· SHIRT NECK 16.5"

· JACKET/SHIRT LENGTH 30.75"

· CHEST SIZE 40.75"

· STOMACH SIZE 31.75"

· JACKET HIPS 36.25"

· SHOULDER SIZE 19"

· SLEEVE LENGTH 26"

· BICEP SIZE 14.75"

· WRIST SIZE 7.25"

Typically I am faced with having to pay for a quality shirt and adding at least 30USD per to have it brought in at the waist. And even in the best of circumstances I still end up with a Frankenstein that is too tight in the neck and can’t be worn with a tie (pictured – Go to Blue Gingham, AWESOME).

I started with a few selections that came with my swatch kit. Over the past few months I have ended up with 12 IC shirts (and counting) so you can infer that the results have been favorable enough to keep me coming back. Here is a summary (pictured – IC collection).

IC Shirt Name	Description	Remake Required
1st Shirt Order
Blueprint	White Oxford	N
Punctuality Fan	Pink Pinstripe	N
2nd Shirt Order
Office Genius	Purple Gingham	Y
Prep School	Blue Stripe	Y
Blueprint	White	Y
Corporate Raider	Oxford Black Stripe	Y
3rd Shirt Order
Go To Blue	Gingham	N
Executive Decision	Blue Pinstripe	N
Blueprint	White Oxford	N
4th Shirt Order
Gallant Gray	Gray Stripe	Y (pending)
Remarkable Royal	Blue Stripe	Y (pending)
5th Shirt Order
Knightsbridge	Tattersall	N
Total	12	6

In general the material quality and workmanship of the IC shirts are excellent. I have grown to love the slightly longer, more distinguished cuff length as it works really well with the two button angle cuff I prefer. Saving me the hassle and 30USD having to rework OTR shirts makes them a great value for me. I also like that although most of their fabric choices are “classics” it’s a safe bet that no one in the office will be sporting any of my MTM shirts. The fit, when correct is amazing. Not too tight across the chest, perfect in the neck, and yet not bulky around my waist. It’s a great feeling to take a fresh shirt out of the IC box and put it straight into the rotation. For example, most recent Tattersall on Order 5 was flawless right out of the box (pictured).

However, as you can see that only happens about 50% of the time in my experience. Remakes have primarily been because of fit deviation + or – with the worst being about 1.5 inches added to the waist of the four shirts in my second order. The fourth order went the opposite way with a very trim chest and forearms that nearly limit my circulation (Gallant Grey pictured – remake underway).

My conclusion is this must be a product of tweaking your profile during the remake process and the musical tailor rotation nature of IC’s business model. Meaning to get a reworked order right you bump your profile a bit. But the next order goes to a new tailor who then interprets said new profile differently and so on resulting in tolerance stack-up. Other inconsistencies were noticed like shirts with and with-out back darts seemingly at random (pictured) and cuffs that taper in two folds vs. one.

In conclusion I think IC shirts are a good value and of good quality. There is heavy competition in the online MTM shirt arena and I would rank IC somewhere in the middle of the pack. An outfit like Moderntailor.com for example doesn’t have the sexy website but gives you a much more robust palate for customization and has a carbon copy measurement profile option (i.e. shirt measurements are entered exactly as-is from an existing perfect shirt and are replicated sans interpretation). The key to success with IC as always is patience. You will get to a great shirt with a great fit eventually but it may take more than one attempt (pictured – Corporate Raider w/subtle monogram).

Indochino introduces secret pockets

Sorry I had missed last Tuesday's update, another summer suit was introduced. I am still on holidays and promised my girlfriend to stay away from the Internet... It is also rather difficult updating the blog only from the iPhone.

Anyways, let's hope this works out. Indochino introduced two special suits yesterday - essentially a cooperation with the distributors of Limitless (the movie) in Canada. The two new suits are based on existing suits (charcoal and a pinstripe) and feature a 'secret' pocket, as seen in the movie. Unfortunately, it seems these pockets are only available for the two special suits and cannot be ordered for all suits. I usually avoid putting heavy objects into my jacket's pockets, but I guess the average smartphone may be just light enough to make it invisible from the outside.

Canadians can also enter a competition and win free Indochino suits for 1 year (value 6000$). Certainly nice to have! I will be back from my holidays soon and have an Indochino shirt review written by a guest author, a competition and more coming up then!