Avitabile-Friday-polo-shirt-navy (1)

  
The next batch of our Friday Polos, designed by myself and Neapolitan shirtmaker Luca Avitabile, are now available to order and be sent out. 

As we described in our first post on this collaboration, these long-sleeved polo shirts are cut long in the body (like a shirt) to make them ideal for wearing with tailoring.

They also have a classic, cutaway collar, a slightly slim fit, and are made of a beautiful mid-weight cotton piqué. The latter makes them ideal for wearing most of the year, under different weights of jacket. 

As the shirts have been available for pre-order for the past few weeks, stock on many is already running low – despite the 100-piece production run. The current stock is:

White: all sizes available
Navy: sold out in S, L and XL, one left in M
Grey: sold out 
Blue: all sizes available
Green: sold out

I particularly recommend the white and grey colours. Over the past few months I have found white to be particularly versatile, under either a navy or grey jacket, and grey to work well casually – avoiding any of the corporate or preppy associations of some other shirt colours.

Please note that we are only making the half-button style now, as per a classic polo shirt, as it was so much more popular than the full button-through. 

Those that have already pre-ordered their polo shirts will receive an email from me giving them payment details. All others wishing to make an order should email me at [email protected]. Each polo costs £145, and postage is £8 in Europe, £14 elsewhere in the world. 

You can see the five colours below: white, navy, grey, blue and racing green. The mother-of-pearl buttons look particularly nice against the white. 
  

Polo grey Polo whitePolo Green Polo Blue Polo Navy

  
I wear a medium, and have a 38-inch chest and 15-inch neck. The measurements for all the sizes are (in centimetres):

             Chest      Waist         Yoke        Sleeve         Body

S           102            92              40                  61                 75
M          106           96               44                  65                 76
L           116            106             47                  69                 81 
XL        124           114              48                  69                 81 
 
Other points:
  • Payment is through the Permanent Style site on credit card
  • Shipping is £8 in Europe and £14 elsewhere, with a small additional charge for each polo shirt after the first
  • I’m happy to accept returns, but can’t pay return postage
  • Any other questions please let me know

And on the product itself:

  • My key aim was a polo that worked well under tailoring
  • They are designed to be tucked in and so cut long, with tails like a shirt. This way they do not come out of the trousers and have a cleaner finish through the waist
  • They are pre-washed, so should not shrink. Do please wash on cool and line dry, however
  • They are made with a collar stand, in order to stand up and roll around a jacket collar, but also have rubber collarbones in case you want the collar to not roll and remain stiff
  • The material, from Caccioppoli, is one of the most important aspects. Previously I have had bespoke ones in both winter and summer weights, and neither have been quite right. The summer ones lack body and can be too transparent; the winter ones are too heavy to wear in the summer. This fabric is not only a beautiful quality, but is a mid-weight that (in England) could be worn three seasons of the year. On its own in summer, or in Spring or Autumn with a shawl-collar sweater over the top 

 

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JH

Is there a waiting list for sold-out colours and sizes? (In case of any returns coming back). Or another batch due before long?

Chris

Hi Simon,

Keen to order one (or two!), although I’m a little confused by your sizing chart. I have a chest size of 39-40″ (99-101cm), which would indicate I’m a small, however you seem to have similar measurements to me and have taken a medium. Perhaps you can advise?

Equally after missing out on your Smedley/PS polo’s, I brought two directly from Smedley (Dorset) and some other JS goods! Having lost a lot of weight/bulk, namely due to cycling and getting rid of the bulky muscle I put on during my early twenties, these and a lot of other items no longer fit. Graeme Browne doesn’t do knitwear, so is there a tailor which you can recommend, who would alter and essentially reduce the sizes from XL/L to a slim medium?

Thanks again

Chris

Phil Carpenter

Simon,

I have the opposite problem. I’m a 42 chest – so large – but with shorter arms.
How easy is it to shorten the sleeves?
Thanks
Phil

Jerrell

Hi Simon, just a quick, random question for you.
This fabric: http://www.themerchantfox.co.uk/prod/752/limited-edition-cloth/large-prince-of-wales-check

Could it work as a 3 piece, or do you think a DB jacket is better?
Thank you

Calvin Chan

Again about the Book I’m trying so hard to buy…

I have talked to the online help staff on Hanger Project.

To be honest, I really don’t quite understand why the book sale is in USA and price is only in USD. It’s a British style book by a British Author. There should be a UK website selling in GBP and shipping within UK.

As explained by the staff, I have to pay in USD but they could ship the book from their UK warehouse, but the Promotional Shipping offers – Standard Ground shipping is actually somehow more costly than the FedEx International Economy shipping. This is what I also don’t understand.

Why is the “Promotional” shipping more than the international option? Why is it International shipping if they are shipping from the UK Warehouse to a UK address? Funny enough, if I chose Promotional shipping option, the book would be shipped from Texas while I am in London. But there is no way to find out unless you ask the staff online.

In other words, if I chose the more expensive shipping option, the book actually is travelling across the ocean instead of shipping in land within UK. Is that funny? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Last but not least, there is this Pay Import Duty thing I have to click at the end of the check out process. Why import duty if I live in UK buying a book in UK?

No doubt the book is awesome and fantastic to read but this complicated online purchase process is totally putting me off in how non sense it is. In any normal circumstance, I would just give up because it took me too much time to figure out. But I am still buying it….

I would just like to understand why it is the way it is?

Thank you.
Calvin

Calvin Chan

Thank you for the prompt reply. As I mentioned in my last comment, I finally did purchase the book.

However, other than the Hanger Project website, where else can one buy the book in UK really? That is what has been puzzling me.

Kirby Allison

Hi Calvin –

Sorry about the trouble here – there should be a $7.00 USD Shipping Option for UK customers to account for the fact that we can ship the book domestically for UK customers. We have to sell this in USD because we don’t have our .co.uk site up yet to allow us to accept transactions in GBP. You will not have to pay duty, even though the website gives you this option. Again, system limitation.

Setting up the .co.uk and accepting payments in GBP sounds easy – but, unfortunately, because the money laundering laws, it is actually really, really difficult for us to set up that structure. But it should be completed within the next 60 days.

The $7.00 shipping should be working again within the next few hours. If you’d like, email us at [email protected] and we’ll follow-up with you when this is working again.

Cheers,

Kirby

Calvin Chan

About the fabulous book again! Sorry again.

After half an hour talk with the very helpful online staff on the Hanger Project website.

Turns out if I live in UK, not only they would ship from UK warehouse but I don’t need to pay the International Economy shipping by FedEx AND the Import duty either.

So instead of the original USD81, in fact, I only have to pay USD52 as the local UK shipping only costs $7!!

But all these I would not know IF I hadn’t talk to the customer support staff! And the fact that she also had to check with her manager and that she kept apologising about also not understand why there is no UK purchase option clearly shows this is a problem that I was rightfully worried about, and frankly quite annoyed.

At the end, she had to do a shipping and import duty refund separately to my purchase in order to make things right.

If anyone in UK is like me trying to buy this book online, as the only option, I doubt they would know they are paying much more than they should as they simply don’t have any explanation on the website. However, the staff did promise me that they will look into this issue and would provide a UK purchase option with price in GBP and local shipping option ASAP.

Finally bought the book. What a hassle.

Oliver M

Hi Simon,
in your view, how do these (beautiful!) polos compare to the fine knit Smedley polos in terms of formality, versatility, etc.? Anything the Avitabile polos can do that the Smedley ones cannot? Also, does Luca Avitabile sell the polos in his shop in Naples?

SC

Hi , when will long sleeve Polos be back in stock? Navy and White in XL
Is https://www.thebespokeshop.com a trustful dealer of the original shirts?
Thanks again,
Stefan