(Or in other words, what separates a premium shirt from a cheap shirt?)
Step One
The Collar
The perfect collar should hold its shape for wash after wash, and fold cleanly around the top. Blake Mill has examined every one of the twenty-two sections that comprise a collar and refined all of them.
Step Two
The Buttons
Cheap buttons crack. And buttons that are sewn on quickly, fall off quickly. Using the highest quality buttons, which are slightly deeper than normal, makes them far stronger. Also, having the buttons sewn on properly contributes to a better design.
Step Three
ONLY THE FINEST FABRIC
Sourcing high-quality fabric should be simple. Right? Not in our experience! It took examining over 2,000 fabrics to then make over 100 of them into shirts before the right standards were met.
Step Four
The Stitching
Cheap shirts are stitched poorly. The stitches are large, spaced far apart, and the stitch lines wander. By using a very high stitch count, which demands far greater skill, produces the superior hem found on Blake Mill shirts.
Step Five
The Arm Insert
Sewing an arm into a shirt is a more highly skilled job than you might think. Done poorly the fabric will 'coggle' in the seam. Hiring only the most experienced seamstresses gives them plenty of time to achieve the staple silhouette.
Step Six
The Cuffs
The cuffs are vital, they must hold their shape for the life of the shirt, and always look crisp. It has taken many attempts to perfect, but using hundreds of quality shirts, different fabrics, alternate designs and fusing over materials, the final look has been achieved.
Step Seven
Longevity
Making a shirt look good for a moment isn’t hard. Making a designer shirt look good for years of use is considerably more difficult. Cheap shirts are made from poor fabrics, with thin buttons, and are sewn together quickly by in-experienced seamstresses in low-cost factories. Blake Mill shirts are made from the finest materials and are lovingly worked on.
Step Eight
FABRIC PRINTING
Printing fabric is more black magic than science. At Blake Mill, the perfect print means three things: rich, deep colours, fine detail without blurring, and ensuring the non-printed areas remain pure white. It took a long time to find the printers that could do all three.
STEP NINE
PRICE
Fashion has an appalling reputation for exploiting its workers. Garments are often made in crowded, unsafe factories. And the industry has been repeatedly shamed for the use of child labour. Cheap fashion comes at a very high price for the people who make it.
Blake Mill shirts are made in safe, ethical environments. Insisting on such standards and carrying out regular checks is what makes the Blake Mill brand different from the rest.
