Suitsupply shirt review
what do you get for $119 ?
The review
Suitsupply: the Dutch menswear giant, which had a women's line for a brief period of time, has become THE menswear staple brand by leveraging China’s skilled, low-cost labour, and pairing it with big textile supplier names. From sub €400 half canvas suits, to €90 shirts, all cut from Albini, Vitable Barberis Canonico, or Baird McNutt fabrics. While prices have increased since the company’s founding, it still has a reputation for delivering the most bang for the buck.
Fabric
Suitsupply: 100% linen
Sewing
Suitsupply: single needle
Country of origin
Suitsupply: China
Price
Suitsupply: €119
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Side gussets
This is the same half gusset that can be found on Massimo Dutti, but it is applied internally and not on the outside of the shirt. This results in 0.5 points instead of a maximum of 1.
Cuffs
Suitsupply, with its slim and tailored fits, tries to accommodate more wrist sizes by using two cuff buttons. While there is the argument that customers would just move the single button to their desired buttoning point when only one is provided, two allow for on-the-fly adjustment, and most people can’t sew on a button anyway.
Plackets
It’s a classic, and comes with a laterally sewn last buttonhole.
Sleeves
A manica sposata/scarto manica at this price point is neat.
Shoulder
The sewing is very clean. No spalla camicia, which is also a stylistic choice. Suitsupply is decidedly neutral between British, French, and Italian tailoring and borrows whatever is appropriate for each design.
Collar
A classic spread collar, a little light for my liking, but that has nothing to do with the construction quality of the garment.
Stitch density
Suitsupply delivers a good stitch density of 16 per inch and competes with mainstream shirt makers at double the price here. It is higher than the likes of Massimo Dutti but still falls short of the likes of Pini Parma.
Suitsupply: 7/cm 16/inch
Buttons
Mother-of-pearl buttons are a nice touch at this price point. Kudos for spending the extra cash instead of settling for composite buttons.
Verdict
This is a good shirt. It hits the 11 points threshold, and even exceeds it by 0.5 points, due to the half-side gusset. It will still be good enough for almost everyone. Once accounted for their fabric selection, it cleared the 11-point mark and clocked in 13.5. Suitsupply’s competitive advantage leverages the lower labour costs in China and blends them with high-quality workhorse fabrics. You can get nicer fabrics elsewhere, or more elevated features like a spalla camicia and thicker mother-of-pearl buttons. If you just want a well-made shirt cut from a nice fabric, then Suitsupply will be enough, and paying more won’t be as rewarding as the price difference may suggest.
Suitsupply:
The CMT work is good and features great quality control. The quality that Suitsupply delivers for the price is hard to beat, and lives up to the brand’s reputation.
Note - it is impossible to evaluate fabrics side by side because you don’t know the mill that a brand sourced it from, and thus relying on subjective impressions like handfeel shouldn’t qualify as an objective metric. Which is why I exclude the fabric from these comparisons, but have added a column that accounts for it when brands disclose their mills and adds up to two points to the final score, with the required baseline score remaining unchanged.
The women’s shirts are graded by the same criteria as the men’s shirts in the shirt review sheet