Staxfan, you're very welcome.  You might care to pick up on this relatively new thread.  Not confined to Richmond of course but anything JS, IS, John Lally et al. were connected with.  Hopefully, yes, something to suit all tastes: names, labels, anecdotes etc.  Words only for the time being but it's a start.

My earliest recollection of the IS was in early '68, I was 15 still at school, a pal who was a year or so older and working had 2 shirts from the IS, I can remember what they were, ( he probably can't !), white with a blue stripe and flap pocket, and a blue ocbd, the shirts were expensive for me but I guess it must have been a couple of months later I bought a Lion of Troy pale yellow h/s, olive green harrington a couple of months later, ( they were still under the radar at this point), and black plaincap royals in December with my Christmas dosh from my M&D, in '69 there were a lot of Career Club shirts in the IS, there were always a wide range of checks, stripes, probably no more than 2-3 in each pattern in each size, I ( we) have since learnt that JS use to buy up dead stock from the previous year in NYC and ship them back to London, the best ones always sold out as soon as they hit the shelves, one Saturday I went back 3 times for a shirt they were holding for someone, finally they let me have it, didn't wear it on the Saturday, saved it for Sunday at the Castle Ballroom ( 2 mins from the IS) , thought I was the business, there were probably no more than 2-3 other shirts in this big summery check in the UK, but the 2-3 other guys who had bought them also wore them that night !, In 1970/71 not all shirts were from the USA, although bd's they came from Ireland, I know this as I worked at Heathrow and my company were arranging the customs clearance ( pre EU) and the delivery to Richmond.... shopped there till it closed, this overlapped with shopping in Russell St, pre-covid made the pilgramage to Chiltern St 1-2 times per year, JS invariably pounced on me when I arrived ( usually as they opened), probably as I was a more 'mature' customer and I often left with something I didn't know I wanted or needed , but it always worked out fine, very fond of my brown Keydge cord jacket,

Interesting that you mention shirts made in Ireland. Ben Sherman I believe had 5 factories making their shirts but I think that might have been Northern Ireland. Funny that I turned my back on good quality BS shirts in favour of American shirts that were sometimes inferior. Those American short sleeved check shirts were great though.

Don't remember Towncraft.
London wasn't just East and West. North London had a good Ivy style shop opposite the Tottenham Royal in the Tottenham high road and South London could get up to Charing Cross on the railway pretty quickly.
Fashion ideas were spread quickly in Dancehalls and on the London football terraces I think.

Also I think the old Shermans were all cotton/poly blends, with more of the latter than the former. They did do some nice stripes and checks though.

Fair enough. I had a few vintage (60s I think) Shermans years ago, all poly cotton, all with the closed pleat and all with a collar that sort of rolled, but not in the classic fashion.

I had maybe 4-5 BS shirts in ‘68 all stripes, to my recollection they were all cotton, full roll as RobB said, open box pleat in the back,later they had the pleats sewn in and darts, the checks , which I can’t recall seeing before ‘69, were awful, not for me, but some of those Career club 1/2 sleeves were poly/cotton, wasn’t too bothered about that as long as they were ‘Made in the USA’
RobbieB - by the sound of things us in the ‘West’ were ahead of you in the ‘East’, I guess the irony here is that JS was an Eastender but opened his first meaningful shop in Richmond, SW London, oh it could have been so different,hehe !