Feeling the fabric while online shopping – Joe Button opens Sydney store

Ever gone shopping for clothes online, received the product and it wasn’t the right size or was of a quality you weren’t expecting? Why else do you think most online bought clothes are shipped with return labels? It has happened to me numerous times and today I experienced a way this wont happen while shopping at this online store.

Joe Button is company making tailored shirts and suits at a very competitive price, a price that suits the online world. The name comes from creating garments affordable by the average Joe. They have however done something slightly different. To ensure the shirt and suit fits properly and the colours and fabrics look and feel as you expect, they have also opened a store in Sydney.

The store is located on level 5, 428 George St Sydney and they have set up a venue where you can see examples of their products, go through swatches of fabrics and colours as well as be measured for your order.

A tailored and custom-made shirt will set you back around $100 and a suit will start from $500.

Once your measurements are taken, the product will generally ship to your door in three weeks time. While the company is Australian owned, their production is in China who receive your measurements and get to work. It was interesting to talk to Modi Song and Melissa Lee about their journey. Their most difficult part of starting a tailoring company is finding someone who will produce garments for you but in quantities of ONE. Most manufacturers are used to producing shirts in quantities of 10,000. They certainly had some challenges and spent six months travelling Asia to source the right vendors who are using premium European cotton.

Your order isn’t just customised by your measurements, but also preferences. A french cuff? Rounded? One button? Two button? You name it. The collar can also be customised with choices around their shape and spread. Since the tailoring is so definite and thorough it does mean an item of clothing only you can wear.

While my measurements were being taken I was surprised when my wrist on my left was measured with the watch included, this means that the shirt will fit perfect even while wearing my time-piece. The choices around which fabric I wanted meant flicking through large swatches of material to find one I liked, truth be told, I liked plenty of the patterns but did eventually choose just one.

My Joe Button shirt arrives in three weeks and I look forward to wearing a shirt made for me.