OCBDs for people with monkey arms?
I'm a college student, and am in the unfortunate situation of being 6'5", with a 38.5" sleeve (from center back), 16" neck, and 40" chest.
I had spent a few hours with the Spier and Mackay sizing chart, and ordered some shirts based on cross-referencing their "AI" sizing chart and my own measurements, and they unfortunately don't fit at all - the arms are at least 2 inches too short since I had ordered 35" arms (having had a different sleeve measurement at the time)
Are there any affordable options for people my size? I've looked on the subreddit and found shirtdetective.com, but all the links are dead (and the shirts are very expensive).
Thanks!
12 Replies
Do you have an exact budget? I'd say Proper Cloth but that might be out of reach
I've also got monkey arms, and in the past I've just dealt with having shorter sleeves, but recently I've gotten tired of it.
Charles Tyrwhitt is much cheaper and has customisable sleeve lengths for their dress shirts, but I don't think they do it for their casuals/ocbds sadly
If you can afford it ($95 for a OCBD: https://propercloth.com/dress-shirts/light-blue-oxford-cloth-343259.html), I can highly recommend Proper Cloth
Light Blue Oxford Cloth Button Down Shirt
Every man should own an oxford shirt. Comfortable, hard-wearing, and incredibly versatile, oxfords are an absolute wardrobe staple. Our heavy oxfords have ...
Thanks to the very specific sizing instructions you can give them, I got my shirt correctly sized on the first try. But they also offer free remakes if the shirt does not fit on the first try.
It'll help a lot if you define "affordable" in a specific currency budget
ideally, as low cost as possible: $60 / shirt is already pretty expensive for me, but it doesn't seem like i'll be able to find anything that'll work for anywhere around that price
proper cloth looks really good! is there anything i should know about ordering from there? maybe this is a general question, but should i order slightly larger than my measurements expecting it to shrink a little?
and thanks for the recommendations guys, i really appreciate it :)
You're going to have a hard time finding anything new in that range, unfortunately. Even tall alpha sizes don't have 39" sleeves, and places that sell oxfords in neck-and-sleeve sizing (e.g., J Press) are more expensive. Proper Cloth's Soft Ivy collar is well-liked. J Press or Mercer and Sons if your budget is very flexible. For questions about shrinkage etc I'd reach out to them directly.
shrinkage is accounted for
they have a lot of documentation on the website
A little over budget for you but I'd also recommend Spier Mackay - a custom shirt would run around $90.
Luxire is another option for custom OCBDs within your budget. I preferred them to Spier or Proper Cloth.
I hate to say this, but if you're going to buy custom shirts, you should really wash cold and hang dry. No matter what you allow for shrinkage, if you're budget-minded, you will eventually destroy a custom OCBD by shrinking it if you use a dryer or wash warm. Shrinkage continues past allowances.
thanks guys
is the quality between luxire, spier and proper cloth pretty similar?
it's looking like i'll just have to go custom to get something that works :(
this is also (slightly) off topic, but for pants i run 34-35ish, is my best bet trying to find 34-36s and getting them hemmed? are there any closer-to-normal prices for trousers that would fit well? thanks
There was a brand called Wolf vs Goat that if you caught a pre-order you could customize your shirt with either "monkey" or "t-rex" arms. Not sure of they are still around or still do that, but it might worth checking out. I think at some point you could get custom neck size as well.
I would just get them hemmed. It’s a cheap and even expected alteration. That said, plenty of places sell unhemmed pants that they’ll hem to the length you request.