26 July 2011

Business shirts for a fat necked man in Canberra?

| Hank
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Although this may seem a joke, unfortunately I have a big fat neck and find it impossible to fit into off the rack business shirts.

I have tried all the big and small department stores and although there are ones that fit my neck it looks like I’m wearing a poncho with all the excess material floating around the rest of my body. I have resorted to getting my shirts either tailor made or heavily tailored in, but due to budget constrains this option is getting rather expensive.

I like to keep fit and subsequently have an athletic build; I can’t imagine this problem is isolated so I’m calling out to other athletic fat necked men to suggest some brands or stores I can buy some more shirts from without bleeding dry.

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Hank, if you want the best end result on your shirts – Go to Australia’s best bespoke tailors – Germanicos. They fly to Canberra every week from Melbourne and make by far the best suits and shirts I have owned – http://www.tailor.com.au – Price is also very attractive for true Australian bespoke!!

well here comes the solution for your problem, try out Crown tailors of Bangkok, they give finest stitched clothes to you exactly as you demands. they offer variety of fabric and designs with reasonable prices. they come to visit Australia every year in the month of March. So you can very well check them out then yourself.

Back when I was skinny, fat-necked and wore a tie (only one of these is still true), I used to swear by the Van Heusen European Fit shirts.

patrick_keogh7:11 am 09 Sep 11

A somewhat less esoteric solution is that Van Huesen sell their business shirts with both a neck size and sleeve length. For any given neck size they will make about half a dozen different sleve lengths. So if you go into somewhere like DJs in Civic you’ll find that the wall of shirts has two numbers on each package and a little colour coding to make it easier. Having learned your own specific two measurements it is quick to scan the shelves for ones that would fit in a variety of styles/fabrics/colours.

Don’t know whether your specific ratio will be covered but it is worth a look. Myer are also stockists.

Fellas, check out http://www.maxgabriel.com.au a new site that sells business shirts for neck sizes 46cm – 52cm. Set up by the wife of a large necked executive who couldn’t find a decent affordable shirt for hubby. They are truly well made with attention to detail – I know because I photographed them and wish they stocked them in regular sizes. 🙂

I have this problem. I went to Thailand last year and went to this guy: http://www.henryscollection.com and he was brilliant.

Word has it that he will be in Canberra early in August. I suggest you email him and try and make a time. Will take a few weeks for him to get the shirts, but they will be worth it.

Gee, I thought it was just me that had this issue? Maybe we need a support group?

Seriously, I lucked out with this issue as my partner was a seamstress. She perfected the art of what we affectionately called a ‘sleevectomay’. Every business shirt I bought she patiently removed the sleeves on and shortened so I could buy larger shirts that allowed me to wear a tie without chocking me to death.

But alas, we have parted some years ago. So I decided to go to work as a Unix Sys Admin instead. Not a tie in sight in my world and I’m the better off for it. 🙂

To all of my fat necked brothers, and understanding sisters, thank you.
I think I’ll find myself a nice cheap South East Asian tailor to cater for this neck.
If you would like me to report back the quality and price of the one I choose just let me know.

beejay76 said :

trevar said :

I haven’t the fat neck problem, but Australian sellers of pantaloons seem to assume that because my waist is less than 100cm around, my legs must be less than 100cm long, which I can assure you is an erroneous assumption.

Don’t even get me started on women’s clothes that aren’t designed to fit boobs in……

Yeah, anything larger then a ‘c’ and you’re stuffed (pardon the pun). Or rather you’re not.

Probably happens because ‘fashion designers’ can only design for coathangers. Give ’em someone with a shape…

Might be worth getting on the Brumbies’ website and asking. Rugby players tend to have big necks (or they die in the scrum).

Who decided that neck size is related to arm length? Is there actually any scientific basis for this?

And who has decided that all men’s shirts are now ‘slim fit’? I am far from big chested (in a manly kind of way) but I cannot find any off the rack shirts that dont rub me under the armpits.

There are, as people have mentioned, a number of on line places that will make shirts. There are some that you just feed in your measurements (eg: http://www.mybespoketailor.com.au/ – but being Australian, it wont be the cheapest).

I am not sure how you define fat neck, but I have had the same issue with a 46 neck with a 38-40 sized remainder. I did the tailor thing too for a while but stopped for the same reason. Locally, I have found Gloweave at DFO to be pretty good. They have a range of slim fit styles (I cant really tell the difference between slim, urban and contemporary I think they call them), but these take the neck size and then cut into the waste. They are typically about $35 a pop and are cotton rich, so very comfie. No I dont work for them, just have had your issue.

As a person who is Big and Tall, The Big and Tall store in the Melbourne Building is the place to go.

trevar said :

I haven’t the fat neck problem, but Australian sellers of pantaloons seem to assume that because my waist is less than 100cm around, my legs must be less than 100cm long, which I can assure you is an erroneous assumption.

Don’t even get me started on women’s clothes that aren’t designed to fit boobs in……

I haven’t the fat neck problem, but Australian sellers of pantaloons seem to assume that because my waist is less than 100cm around, my legs must be less than 100cm long, which I can assure you is an erroneous assumption.

I have encountered purveyors of clothing for the tall and the wide; there is one in Melbourne called High and Mighty, and I remember looking into a place called Big and Tall in the Melbourne Building here, but the cost of that extra 10cm of material to make the pantaloons stretch all the way down to the start of my feet is 1000% more than the price paid for the first metre, and for years I had to content myself with revealing a bit of ankle bone whenever I sat.

I have since found that the solution to this problem is to purchase my pantaloons offshore. On a recent trip to the land of the free and the home of the brave (which coincidentally also happens to be the land of the fat and the home of the broad), I found that some clever clogs in the land of the long green dollar have developed an ingenious system of sizing their products with varying waist girths matched to varying leg lengths.

Ever since, I buy my trousers, jeans, dungarees, pantaloons and dresses online. The best source of pants that stretch all the way from my waist to my ankles I’ve found is Haggar, but I haven’t sought fat-necked shirts, so all I can do is recommend searching the interwebs for shirt sellers on the far side of the Pacific where the length of one’s legs determines the length of one’s pants, and not the other way around as apparently it is supposed to here.

With the dollar as strong as it is you can order a tailored shirt from Hong Kong that’ll cost you the same as an off-the-rack shirt from Myer. Google for reputable tailors and you will have no trouble with quality.

You’re not alone. I’m also a thick necked man as well but not an athletic build so business shirts are even more of a poncho. I have got shirts tailored made here in Canberra but they were very expensive and were actually made in Hong Kong any way. For what it cost, I could have flown to Hong Kong and got them made whilst I was there.

If you have a shirt that fits, you can send it to a few Hong Kong tailors who will copy its measurements. Prices are around $65 per shirt.

neanderthalsis2:20 pm 26 Jul 11

You’re not all alone. I had this problem, years of playing rugby left me with no neck, shirts would fit around the girth but with the collar button done up threatened to strangle me. I purchased a neck extender, basically a piece of elastic with a button hole on one end and a button on the other that gave you an extra few cms around the neck without looking like a bum with your top button undone. The problem has lessened over time though as the girth has been playing catchup to the neck!

troll-sniffer2:16 pm 26 Jul 11

Might be a good opportunity to develop a relationship with a tailor in Bangkok, I know several people who get a lot of clothes made there, and never have any problem.

Calamity said :

Hank said :

Unfortunately, it seems I’m all alone with my fat neck…

You are not alone, Hank. My partner often complains about this – I shall ask him immediately if he has any recommendations, but I have a feeling he is searching for an answer just like you… Real gap in the market there! 😉

HA HA HA, a big gap in the market; maybe the big and tall shop can open a special section for the fat necked people.

Hank said :

Unfortunately, it seems I’m all alone with my fat neck…

You are not alone, Hank. My partner often complains about this – I shall ask him immediately if he has any recommendations, but I have a feeling he is searching for an answer just like you… Real gap in the market there! 😉

Unfortunately, it seems I’m all alone with my fat neck…

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