A Marks and Spencer £30 made-to-measure shirt was a better fit than a Savile Row version costing more than five times the amount, according to a report published today.
The snapshot test by consumer watchdog Which? found the £165.50 effort from a bespoke tailor on Savile Row was “baggy, lacked shape and its sleeves were too long”.
The M&S version was “in a different league”, winning the test for comfort and fit.
A model with “unusual” measurements — 5ft 6in with “quite a thick neck” — compared the M&S made-to-measure shirt with an off-the-peg version from the same retailer, a Tailor Store shirt and the fourth from 40 Savile Row.
The made-to-measure shirts were ordered online from M&S, 40 Savile Row and the Tailor Store by submitting a number of measurements.
The labels were then removed and the model and an expert from bespoke tailors Redwood and Feller assessed each shirt, ranking each out of 10.
The M&S made-to-measure scored eight, the Tailor Store shirt seven, the 40 Savile Row version four points while the M&S off-the-peg did not win any points at all.
Which.co.uk editor Jess Ross said: "Treating the man in your life to an extra special shirt this Christmas needn’t be as expensive as it sounds.
"It’s worth paying a little bit extra for a made-to-measure service, but you don’t have to fork out for top of the range brands to get the best quality and fit."
A spokeswoman for 40 Savile Row said the shirt was more expensive because it was made of two-ply Italian cotton and had been hand-made in Northern Ireland.
