We Asked a Savile Row Tailor to Test All the ‘Best’ T-Shirts You See in Social Media Ads (2024)

Everyone has a favorite T-shirt. Most right now covet Jeremy Allen White’s from The Bear. For WIRED senior editor Jeremy Allen White, it’s one of his prized In-N-Out Burger designs—but lately, across his social media feeds, he’s been inundated by brands claiming he’s wrong and that they have unlocked the secret to creating The Perfect T-Shirt.

Some use heritage as a sales strategy, others target body insecurities, while a new breed of online fashion brands are turning to high-tech lasers and adaptive algorithms to create custom T-shirts, tailored to you. But which is best?

The nine T-shirt brands tested have all claimed (primarily on Instagram) to make the perfect T-shirt or words to that effect. Some, such as Spoke and Son of a Tailor, make shirts to order based on the findings of an online questionnaire, while others sell a varying choice of sizes, cuts, and lengths.

Obviously, fit is personal, and everybody is shaped differently, so to get the measure of each brand, Jeremy was joined by UK managing editor Mike Dent and contributing editor Chris Haslam, all of whom are different shapes and sizes, and—crucially—all have contrasting ideas around what makes the perfect T-shirt.

And because fit is only part of the puzzle, WIRED sought the help of Davide Taub, head cutter at world-famous Savile Row bespoke tailor Gieves & Hawkes. Hawkes, which has been a royal tailor since 1789, purchased its London headquarters in 1913, establishing “the Row” as an epicenter for fine tailoring. So it is fitting then that Taub passed his expert eye, and fingers, over the quality of the fabrics and stitching used. It’s worth remembering that we didn’t discuss pricing with him.

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but can the custom-fit, algorithmically driven designs really size you up like a professional? And perhaps most importantly, is there a cure (aside from hard work, diet, and exercise) for the dreaded Dad Bod?

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