http://www.mensvogue.com/clothing/threads/articles/2007/04/hamilton_shirts


threads the cotton club
London may have Turnbull & Asser, but Houston has Hamilton, one of the most exacting shirtmakers in the world.
Film industry comers Daniel Beers, Jeb Brody, Charlie Hewson, Justin Bartha, and Joby Harold—all in Hamilton—keep tabs on Hollywood at Paris Commune in New York City.
Houston is a city of jarring juxtapositions, the type of place where one can find a quiet custom shirtmaker—in league with the most storied of Savile Row—lying low on a gaudy suburban strip a block beyond Kwik Kar Lube & Tune and across the street from a purveyor of erotic novelties. Its neighbors notwithstanding, Hamilton Custom Shirtmaker's clubby headquarters, a dark-paneled parlor and adjoining workshop (the goods are made in full view on site), continues a bespoke tradition dating back to 1883, when the family-owned company first opened its doors to an emerging Texas gentry of cattlemen and cotton traders. (Oil barons and Fortune 500 executives later joined the mix.)

"For years, our trade was mostly local, and pretty much word of mouth," explains David Hamilton, 28, who last year took over stewardship of the venerable brand with his sister, Kelly, 31. Together, the fourth generation of impeccably tailored Hamiltons are modernizing the business and deepening its niche in an increasingly global fashion industry. "We're part of a small but very international network," says Kelly, naming Charvet in Paris, Turnbull & Asser in London, and a few other peers in Los Angeles and Milan.

Beyond the front-room displays—shirts sport variations on elements like the yoke, including, naturally, Western—two vast walls of metal shelves stacked floor to ceiling with more than 500 bolts of fabric beckon customers to peruse. The full range of long-staple cotton weaves is here, from top Italian and Swiss mills such as Testa, along with heaps of color, texture, and pattern options.

Once a client makes a selection from among the well-curated threads, out come the try-on models and measuring tape. Men accustomed to reaching for, say, a 15?½ neck and 33?34 sleeve will find the body's real fractions are finer than that, as a Hamilton tailor pins here and gathers there. By the time the hand-cutting and single-needle sewing of a garment is completed—the process takes about three weeks and costs between $200 and $400—the buyer has had a say in everything, from the collar spread to button placement to cuffs (whether one- or two-button or French, they will have just enough give to clear a wristwatch). Collars don't dangle or choke; sleeves have no need for forearm garters; tails stay tucked; and backs don't billow so voluminously over the belt that you want to reach for a ripcord.

If you're a pocket man, you'll be asked if yours needs to accommodate a fountain pen or an iPod, and how it should be shaped and trimmed. For the inevitable reorders, each customer's precise measurements, plus notes on physical particulars (the slouch of a shoulder, slight differences in arm length, facial angles that help determine the most flattering collar style), go onto a worksheet kept on file, along with the original craft-paper patterns. This process has been passed down, unwritten, for more than 12 decades, beginning with the company's founders, Edward and J. Brooke Hamilton. The young Hamiltons now recognize the importance of codifying such quaint procedures. "It's like an old family recipe," says David. "There comes a time when you need to get the information into the computer." Some of the changes ushered in seem, well, a bit overdue—Hamilton has only lately begun to accept credit cards and conduct business online. David and Kelly are also piloting a do-it-yourself mail-order program aimed at customers who cannot get to Houston or to one of the few retail outlets entrusted with the brand, like Barneys New York.

Such innovations are, in part, why Hamilton shirts are now seen on the backs of more than just Lone Star locals and worldly corporate types. Shown here in Hamilton are friends and film industry up-and-comers Jeb Brody, an executive producer of Little Miss Sunshine and Sunshine Cleaning; actors Justin Bartha (National Treasure: The Book of Secrets) and Charlie Hewson (The Nanny Diaries); Joby Harold, director of Awake; and former assistant to Wes Anderson turned screenwriter Daniel Beers, who is currently adapting a book for Oliver Platt to direct.

If there's new spark in the old company, Kelly thinks it's due to the more active members of her younger generation. "It's hard to find ready-made shirts for the toned body," she says. "We see a developing base out there." And it's one that need never visit the bayou boomtown flagship, much less don a Texas bolo tie. —VANCE MUSE

hamiltonshirts.com