How to choose shirting fabric: the questions a shirt maker asks

When a shirt maker asks me how to choose shirting fabric, I don't reach for the colour cards. I ask my questions first. Cloth either survives a cutting table and repeat laundering, or it doesn't, and no swatch photo on a screen will tell you which. I've sat across from tailors who learned that the expensive way - one bad roll, one complaint, one customer who doesn't come back.

Question one: fibre and count. For shirts people actually wear to work, you want long-staple cotton, and you want the count stated plainly. We run 40 to 200 纱支. Low counts give you body and forgiveness; 200 纱支 gives a hand you can feel through the poly bag. Question two: weight. We work between 100 and 200 g/sqm. Below that and you're see-through under office lighting. Above and you're selling a jacket, not a shirt.

Question three: finishing. If you sell non-iron, agree the level up front - we hold DP3.5. That number is what your customer meets after the third wash, not the first. Ask what happens under industrial laundering if your client is hospitality. And ask for width: 140 to 150 cm is our standard, and even that small spread changes your marker and your yield per metre.

Question four: sampling. Order 1 米 first - we cut from 1 metre with 0.1 metre increments - and put it through your own wash and press before you commit to a bulk run. We send sample books by series, each one holding every colourway in that series, so your customer isn't choosing from a screen. Sample books carry a handling charge that we can talk about; for long-standing partners they go out free. Confirm a book and it ships in 1 to 2 working days.

Question five: money and timing. We quote FOB in HKD, payment cleared before shipment. Volume tiers are 50 米 at 95 折, 100 米 at 90 折, 300 米 at 85 折, freight excluded. Standard lead time is 2 working days; air freight to the EU or US runs 3 to 5 days. If your production calendar is tight, that gap matters more than the discount does.

The last question is who you're buying from. This is where how to choose shirting fabric stops being a technical exercise. Hong Kong Huayuan Trading Company Limited, founded 2009, serves more than 2500 partner tailors and ships roughly 5000 sample books a year. Enquiries get answered within 24 hours on working days. That's the difference between a supplier and someone you can build a season around.

If you're sourcing for a label or a tailoring house, send me your count, weight and finish, and I'll tell you honestly whether we're the right mill for it - including the cases where we're not. Specs, series breakdowns and stock colours are at gianvitomilano.com.

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