Men's dress shirts? ideas?

[calmloki]

Last month I got hauled in to Men's Wearhouse and left with a dark charcoal suit, a pale grey jacket, and a cashmere jacket that jumped into my arms and said "love me". Like I told the girl, its not that I hate shopping for clothes, its not trying on anything that fits. 42 extra long jacket.

So now I'm set up with suit wear, but not appropriate long-sleeved shirts. I'm a long guy with 36-37" sleeve length, a 15 1/2" pencil neck, and I guess the wrong width shoulders, because a 16 1/2 x 36 shirt's shoulder width works while a 15 1/2 x 36 shirt's shoulders are too small. Costco's Kirkland branded dress shirts are a very nice, wrinkle resistant all cotton fabric, very nice cut and touches, but their 15 1/2 neck size only goes to a 35" sleeve - too short. Going to a bigger neck size is not good - look like the tortoise in the old tortoise and hare cartoon. Found some Calvin Klein 15 1/2 x 36-37 shirts, but the cut and tailoring was not a patch on the Kirkland shirts, the shoulders were too narrow, the fabric wasn't wrinkle free... Should mention that the Mens Wearhouse salesman, dollar signs dancing in his eyes, had four shirts and matching ties that he wanted to send home with me - but no chance to try them on. At over $50/shirt I wasn't swayed to pay just to try them.

My normal annual clothing expenditure is probably on the order of $150, mostly on underwear and socks - having dropped the bucks on the suits I want to look good in them. Anyone have suggestions?

Back in the early seventies there were Hong Kong tailors that took measurements and would then make pretty much whatever one wanted and mail out the result - A possibility?

[NW-Bound]

First, I've got to say that you've got a "pencil neck" alright.

Do you have an Oriental tailor in your town? He usually does alterations, but is certainly capable of making you a shirt. Years ago, when I got out of college, and being skinny as I was, there was nothing off the rack that fit me. I had a suit made by a guy like that in Scottsdale. Then, I slowly gained the pounds, and the rest is history.

[JOHNNIE36]

Don't hold me to this, but I think I have seen "extreme" sizes of shirts in the Lands End and LL Bean catalogs. I have purchased their shirts and like them, but I a "normal" 18 X 35. Don't have a catalog handy but check them out.

[Rustic23]

I use to buy all my shirts at the VanHusen outlet. I was in there the other day their dress shirts were around $20. I like them because you can get individual neck sizes, yes 15 1/2 and arm lengths. I too have long arms, neck is a little bigger 16 1/2.

[Westernskies]

If you can find them in giraffe size, I would buy Lands End 100% Cotton Pinpoint - silky smooth, good hand, and they last forever- I have some that I have been wearing for 5+years now- I have mine laundered by the local Korean dry cleaners for ~$1.50, which I highly recommend- especially if you don't wear a suit all the time it is nice to just be able to pull a fresh crisply starched shirt out of the bag and your're good to go- no last minute ironing in your underwear trying to get wrinkles out of a wash and wear shirt...