Hamilton, the 125-year-old American custom shirtmaker, is offering its clients exclusive access to a collection of 1,000 exceptional fabrics through a newly formed partnership with Thomas Mason, which has produced some of the world’s finest shirt fabrics since 1796.
Known as Platinum by Thomas Mason, the file of 1,000 fabric swatches is available at select retailers such as Barney’s New York and Richards of Greenwich. The process begins with the client selecting a fabric. Then he is measured for a custom shirt, and within three weeks Thomas Mason cuts the Italian or Swiss-made fabric to order, sends it to Hamilton’s Houston workshop where the shirt is hand sewn and delivered to the client. The shirts range from $435 to $695.
The Platinum by Thomas Mason collection includes everything from 200- and 240-yarn count fabrics, to its newly introduced 300-yarn count fabrics providing some of the softest, supple shirt options. Platinum fabrics begin as Egypt’s finest cotton, Giza 45. The particular climatic condition and fertile soils along the Nile and around its delta give rise to the best cotton in the world, and the Giza 45 represents less than a half percent of Egypt’s total annual cotton production. The thin, long, smooth nature of the cotton makes it possible to spin the softest, most supple yarns. Next, Thomas Mason’s designers turn to the 700 volumes of archives dating back to 1845 for inspiration for its growing range of classic patterns.
The new Hamilton project is the brainchild of David and Kelly Hamilton, the brother-and-sister team who took over the family business in 2006 that was founded by their great-grandfather Bernard J. Hamilton in Houston in 1883. (www.hamiltonshirts.com)
