My First Custom-made Alvinology Shirt from CYC The Custom Shop

Thanks to the nice folks from Get Singapore and CYC The Custom Shop, I was given the opportunity to get my first custom-made Alvinology shirt at CYC’s Palais Renaissance outlet.

What an honour!

CYC The Custom Shop is where the most revered man in Singapore, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew gets his shirts tailored. From what I heard, a lot of Ministers and other high profile individuals are also CYC regulars.

I was greeted by the store manager, Akira Tan at the shop. Akira is a very warm and friendly chap with many years of experience in the men’s fashion line.

Always smiling, Akira’s service attitude is to sense what customers like and provide choices from there. It is a fine balance between being too pushy to being too laid-back, but Akira balances it well, patiently guiding me through the process of customising a shirt.

First, we started by picking the fabric. I chose a small checkers, pink fabric. Chinese New Year is round the corner and I wanted something in red shades, but yet not too showy.

Next, I was told to pick the overall desire for my shirt as well as the cuffs and collar designs. Akira provided me a few booklets with tonnes of designs to choose from. Frankly, I was spoilt for choice and a little overwhelmed. Luckily, there’s the trustworthy Akira to dispense advice.

I told Akira I preferred a wider collar design due to my fat neck. For both the collar and cuffs, I wanted some crafted detailing, but yet not too loud.

Once we agreed on the design, Akira quickly stretched them down onto a order sheet to show me.

He then went through the button designs, trimmings and other custom options available. Again, with so much choices, I would have been completely overwhelmed without his help.

Finally when the designs are all selected, measurement is then taken.

As a finishing touch, I chose to embroider my online nick, Alvinology, onto the left sleeve to make the shirt truly the one and only CYC Alvinology shirt in the world.

A job order was then placed with their tailoring factory. CYC is one of the only tailors in Singapore who has their own factory located in Singapore and is in full control of the entire tailoring process. Rest assured that you are not paying for services that are out-sourced in bulk to cheaper labour in neighbouring countries.

Akira was to call me back again once the shirt is ready for collection.

I just collected my shirt last Friday:

Gorgeous isn’t it?

The pricing is reasonable too, starting from around S$120 for a custom shirt, depending on the designs and fabric you pick.

I understand from Akira that a similar shirt like mine will cost around $200. I find that quite reasonable as I recently bought a similar off-the-shelf, no-brand shirt for $188.

Off-the-shelf business shirts usually look like they come from the same cookie cutter. Throughout the year, the same few colours and designs are always being sold. I prefer some detailing to my otherwise normal looking business shirts and I think CYC fulfills this need well.

If you are interested to get shirts from CYC too, visit their official website to find out more. CYC also does pants and jackets as well. They do not just cater to the male market, but ladies too.

CYC is one of the many excellent Singapore retail brands listed under the Get Singapore collective branding. Do also check out the Get Singapore website to get to know other quality local brands.

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