CYC custom shirts

When it comes to life’s simple pleasures, there are few to match that of getting a shirt made to your exact fit and style. It’s a relatively low-cost way to spoil yourself. CYC The Custom Shop is a Singapore-based shirt maker established in 1935 and with a reputation for making shirts for cabinet ministers. The firm has recently opened a UK operaton that Sylvia Lim runs from a showroom in Canary Wharf. But the majority of her customers will never visit the showroom, as CYC’s main service is mobile. Lim arrives to meet me at the IoD with a tailor in tow, carrying suitcases of swatches and sample shirts. “This is my wardrobe on wheels,” she jokes.

CYC’s mobile service will visit your home or office for measurement and consultation. The service is efficient and friendly, but a little bit baffling. Deconstructing a shirt is an eye-opener. Who knew there were so many parts to a shirt? Or so many choices to make? Worse, for the indecisive, is the endless selection of materials to wade through.

Perhaps that’s why so many male customers order several identical shirts. “Once they find a shirt they like, men keep re-ordering it,” says Lim. By contrast, women—who make up half of Lim’s customers—can take “up to half a day” to decide. While Lim talks about her time at St Martins College in London and the growth of custom tailoring in the UK, her tailor measures me up. The entire process takes about 30 minutes and the shirt arrives two weeks later. Needless to say, it fits. And as predicted, I start to think about ordering several identical shirts. CYC shirts start at £59, so it’s a treat but also a bargain.