Bombay Shirt Company

Modern Bespoke Tradition

Since 2012 the Bombay

Shirt Company (BSC) has been producing high-quality bespoke shirts in both their brick-and-mortar locations as well as online. Based on timeless traditions, each shirt is crafted by hand from the finest materials ranging from the softest Egyptian cotton to the most luxurious of linen.

I was invited to stop by their newest flagship store in Dubai, located just a stone’s throw away from the heart of the financial district of the city with the promise that elegant bespoke tailoring is available to everybody, not just the uber-wealthy.

‘Cutting’ to the Point

Located in the retail side of Central Park Towers, the shop was somewhat easy to find, once you realized where you need to go. Upon my arrival, everybody was welcoming and helpful and I knew from the moment I walked through the door that they cared about what they did and I was in good hands.

The first step was to determine what kind of shirt I wanted. More than 1000 fine fabrics are available for just about any type of shirt you can imagine for both men and women. I knew I wanted something classic but slightly more formal than your everyday dress shirt.

After multiple sets of fabric samplers, I was fully satisfied on my selection of a black houndstooth fabric for the main body of my shirt. Next came the collars and cuffs. There are 14 different styles of collars to choose from, I remained traditional and selected the Prince Charles collar, which in my opinion pairs best for the suit and tie combination.

Classic French Cuffs were obvious, and I can’t really recommend something different in terms of sophistication or elegance. I did personalize them slightly by adding an accent color on the folded under side of each sleeve.

Made to Measure

From this point on, the shirts become Made to Measure rather than bespoke, which is where the magic lies.

The Master Tailor sized me up and recommended that I try on one of their 12 base sizes that they have on site for men (there are 8 for women). The fit, collar size, and sleeve length are all on a basis of standard block patterns which they will tweak after to get the sizing and fit correct for you based on the measurements the Master Tailor has compiled.

Once he was satisfied that everything was going to be cut the way it should and confident that the fabric would fall the way I want, all I had to do was wait.

Dress to Impress

One of the things I love about ordering a shirt from the people at BSC is that during the entire production process, I was receiving email updates on the status of my shirt. Receiving the email that it was ready for collection in the DIFC shop took only 2 weeks of time. Not bad for all of the customizations I did, especially with the different colored fabrics and personalization of the details.

Black Houndstooth with Custom French Cuffs

When I slipped the shirt on it fit, plain and simple, not too tight but wasn’t billowing either; the Master Tailor had taken the precise measurements and tweaked everything perfectly. I was really impressed that a Made to Measure shirt could fit as well as one that was completely bespoke.

BSC is certainly a place to check out if you’re fed up with what you find a the department stores. Every aspect can be customized which gives a lot of flexibility in designs that cater to both formal and casual wear.

Whether it be one of the multiple stores across India, the most recently opened New York location, or right here in Dubai; BSC disproves the idea that custom-made means expensive. At BSC custom-made really does mean made by you.