The solution to finding the perfect T-shirt? Design it yourself

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Deep in a basement in Mayfair I am lost in a living nightmare. An amiable French woman is measuring my arms, my chest; scrutinising the extremities of my torso. For many men this is a tortuous affair, reminding you what you’ve eaten, how you’ve exercised (or not), or simply what you’ve inherited from your dad. The woman asks: “How do you like your T-shirts?” My mind races through the dozens I have at home, which run from ’90s skater-baggy to optimistically tight. Eventually, I croak: “I prefer it… structural?” She pretends to know what I mean.

I am standing in Sunspel’s brand-new store on Jermyn Street, an airy, tasteful space lined with the British brand’s trademark boxer shorts, knits and tees as well as a selection of its ample archive (it was founded in Nottingham in 1860). Sunspel has long been renowned for its T-shirts: they account for 22 per cent of its business, which is set to reach turnover of £30mn in 2024. Fans have included Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones (they had different types custom-made, to accommodate guitar-playing and drumming respectively) and Cillian Murphy, who promoted Oppenheimer last year in its £90 Classic model. Now it is providing a bespoke service for all, where body length, arm length, fabric, colour, pocket and embroidered embellishments are each subject to your approval. “Where to find the perfect T-shirt” is a question many ask. Here, apparently, is the solution. 

“It’s a unique opportunity to have a T-shirt made in our fabrics and in our factory,” says Sunspel’s creative director David Telfer. “I guess it’s like when you go to a Savile Row tailor.” They are offering this not so much to feed a screaming customer need – “We get very few complaints or requests on our T-shirts,” he hastens to add – but to anticipate what they might want next. “It came from an understanding that people are looking for something more special.” 

I want to wear mine to a smart dinner or wedding

This desire for the custom-made is increasingly visible across luxury – yet doing it for the T-shirt, which was originally a piece of underwear made popular by the US Army, remains relatively unique. Then again, it’s now often a formal item in a wardrobe, and so gets the treatment to match. I want mine to be the kind I can wear to a smart dinner or a wedding, which makes me part of a wider trend. Sunspel’s two most popular T-shirts are its Made in England Classic T-shirt and the Riviera T-shirt, made in a lightweight and midweight cotton respectively, “but we have seen an increase in a slightly heavier fabric, with a slightly looser silhouette and a wider neck trim,” says Telfer. “It’s what I’ve started to wear a lot more when I’m wearing a jacket or a structured blazer. It suits it a little bit more because it can take the weight of a heavier jacket.”

In the outside world, all sorts of T-shirts are available, from oversized boxy fits to the smockish with dangerously scooped necks, but – even if it comes in a handful of versions – the fundamental design for Sunspel’s version has changed little over the decades (the tweaks have been “incremental, says Sunspel’s CEO Raul Verdicchi). This is something that a prototype from the 1930s, now framed on the walls, confirms. The bespoke offering will be available in five different fabrics, including the company’s trademark Sea Island cotton and a newer invention, a cotton-silk blend. Prices start at £160, compared to £90 for ready-to-wear; all customisations are included therein. This means Sunspel still sits at the lower end of the luxury T-shirt offering, its basic cotton one cheaper than Loro Piana (from £415), Brunello Cucinelli (£340) or The Row (£550).

I don’t want anything radical. I ask for the T-shirt to sit around the waist, I opt for a close, solid collar, I want the arms to sit about midway (anything to prevent them from looking like “uncooked baguettes” as a friend once called them). I choose a midweight fabric in white. I have stronger feelings elsewhere: absolutely no to the prospect of a pocket – to me, it has always felt like excess design, and Sunspel’s dozens of options, however nice, can’t convince me otherwise. As for the initials, I start by snubbing them – and then, as we go through the swatches, I succumb. A small set of initials, in pale, barely-there stitching, on the sleeve: who would know? Why else am I having this experience? I’m not sure if this will be the perfect T-shirt – knowing me, that will probably remain out of grasp. Still, it approaches something special.