The good news is that for now, some shirts are still made at the North Carolina factory, and you can request the classic 1.5-inch wide placket (or perhaps that’s just what they come with—I’m not sure, so I’d request it in the comments section at the end of checkout for good measure). On any given shirt page, it lists the factory that will make the shirt, so for example the blue campus Oxford is still made in North Carolina. However, given news that Brooks Brothers is closing third party production at their factories while they seek buyers for the company, time is no doubt very limited to get a shirt made by Ratio not only in Garland, NC, but with a proper placket width. Eric, the CEO of Ratio, told me they hope to offer the traditional-width placket again in the future, but have no timeline or information at this time if/when that will take place on shirts made in New Jersey.
TL;DR buy your shirts made in the Garland factory now, don’t wait.]
A little while ago I made a Venn diagram for Styleforum that neatly categorized a bunch of different makers who all do a good take on the perennially loved Oxford Cloth Button-Down shirt (OCBD for short). For a refresher on the history of the OCBD, read Derek Guy’s excellent series, which he did for Put This On several years ago.
One of the makers in those diagrams was Ratio, which a friend of mine had wholeheartedly endorsed to me. They’re an online custom shirt maker, which has their shirts manufactured at a factory in North Carolina (Brooks Brothers’ shirts are also made in North Carolina; is it the same factory? See below). I took his word that they were excellent and featured them in the post. That caught their attention and Ryan Snow, product development manager there, messaged me asking if I’d like to try a shirt out for myself and write a review (for my policy on free products, see here). I said yes, and set about creating a custom size and choosing which fabric I wanted to do.
[Keep reading to find a limited time 20% off discount code for your first Ratio shirt!]
I’ll get into some of the details of the process below, but I’ll spoil the review right now and say: the shirt is awesome. It is the nicest OCBD I own. It is the perfect fusion of the charm of the traditional, classic unlined-collar OCBD invented by Brooks Brothers with the contemporary freedom of choice in exact sizing and design details.
I picked their sturdy, white campus Oxford cloth. I copied my excellent blue Brooks Brothers OCBD for design details: Fitzgerald collar (their name for their unlined, mid-century-inspired collar button-down); unlined placket and cuffs; no front pocket; center box pleat; rounded cuffs. I added one fanciful dalliance: a button on the back of the collar (which was a detail found on some makers’ mid-century sportier Oxfords, but never the classic dress Brooks, to my knowledge). I requested a few additional design details that aren’t included in the standard form, but which you have to request in the “special instructions” box during checkout: no sleeve placket buttons, an increase to the collar band height (my friend recommended that as he said it helps make it feel a little more lively under a jacket), and the special shirring at the cuff that Brooks is known for. They accommodated me, except for the shirring.
The custom sizing process is standard procedure for online shirt makers. They have a dead-simple questionnaire you can fill out, and they guess your best measurements, if you don’t want to drill down into the details. The results of that were excellent. However, I wanted to replicate my Brooks shirt (but perfect it a bit), so I took their pre-supplied measurements and tweaked. My recommendation to most people would be to just do their questionnaire and either go with it or compare to your favorite shirt to confirm, and then use their superb remake policy if it doesn’t fit perfectly. For the menswear neurotic like me, I say measure your favorite shirts and make a custom size.
There were two custom size details I’d never come across with any of the other custom shirtmakers I’ve used: sleeve attachment angle, and differing sleeve lengths. Attachment angle is exactly what it sounds like. Attaching a sleeve perpendicular to the shirt makes for larger range of motion, but results in extra fabric folding as your arms hang at your side. Attaching it at a downward angle reduces the folding for a cleaner look, reducing the range of motion. I looked at my other shirts, and saw my Brooks were attached perpendicularly, and almost all my other shirts (Eidos and Proper Cloth, primarily) were attached at an angle. I went with perpendicular since I was recreating my Brooks OCBD, and am glad I did. It feels more comfortable while maneuvering with a wiggly 6-month-old. As for the differing sleeve lengths, I added some to my left sleeve because my shirts always show less cuff under a jacket on my left arm; this solved it!
The Results
Once I clicked “Order,” it was only 2 weeks before the shirt was complete and on its way to me. Since it was coming from within the United States, it came via Priority Mail, and was delivered within a couple days.
They nailed the fit. They nailed the design. The higher collar band is killer—it takes the otherwise really good Brooks unlined OCBD collar and makes it a little extra special for someone like me who likes large, Italian collars. It has an excellent roll, buttoned or unbuttoned, making beautiful curves with or without a tie. The collar points measure 3.75” or so (compared to Brooks’ 3.5”—I think the added collar band height meant they needed to add to the collar points). The collar shape is more along the lines of Brooks’ pointed expression, as opposed to Kamakura’s or Proper Cloth’s spread expression. But it looks slightly more spread to me than Brooks, which I like. The fabric is a thick, bulletproof Oxford—something I foresee lasting me forever, and just getting good after 200 wears. The Mother of Pearl buttons are beautiful and thick. The one thing that’s a little less nice than my Brooks is that the side seams are not gusseted at the bottom—it’s just a plain, finished seam (which is actually how Brooks made theirs before the 2016 relaunch of the shirt when they removed the collar lining).
I heartily recommend Ratio’s OCBDs. They’re a great deal: a custom-fit Oxford, made of fantastic cloth, with a superb remake policy, and probably made at the same factory as Brooks, which retails for $140, all for under $100 shipped. Of course they make other collar styles and have other fabrics. I’d be interested in their madras fabrics and cotton-linen blends.
For my readers who are interested in trying Ratio, they have a special, limited-time discount code for 20% off your first order: MM20. It only lasts for 30 days, so if you’ve got a mind to stock up, replace an old, worn-out shirt, or want something new, now’s your chance.
I had a few questions for Ryan about their factory, my shirt and what special requests their factory can handle, which he parlayed on to their CEO Eric Powell. He generously took the time to respond to me, and I’ve reproduced his comments below.
Mitchell Moss: Where do you make your shirts? I was told it’s at the same factory in North Carolina that Brooks Brothers makes theirs. Is that so?
Eric Powell: Our shirts are all made in a facility in North Carolina that’s been making shirts for 50-60 years, though our manufacturer has asked that we not share the names of other brands produced there.
MM: I liked being able to add 1/4 inch to my collar band height. WHat other types of special requests can you accommodate?
Also I wondered if adding the collar band height also made the collar points longer. They measure more like 3.75” than the stated 3.5” on the website.
EP: For the longest time, an unlined 3.5″ collar was our #1 “secret” option, but it became so popular that we added it as an official option on the site. A few other things we do with some frequency by special request:
– No gauntlet buttons (the little buttons on the sleeve opening)
– Horizontal bottom buttonhole
– A convertible style cuff (buttonholes on both sides and a button on one side so that it can be worn with or without cuff links).
These things mostly come about organically when customers ask if we can do something. It never hurts to ask us, and we always welcome the feedback regardless. For the options actually available on the site, we try to balance ease-of-use with breadth of customization.
Yes, the raised band will very slightly extend the point length, but a little of that can be manufacturing variance too when the collar is set inside the band (collars are set by hand).
MM: Tell me about your fabric source, specifically for the Oxford cloth. Is it the same as Brooks Brothers, or from a similar mill? It’s crazy good, bullet proof cloth.
EP: Thank you! We love it too. We pretty much source all of our fabrics directly, including most of our oxfords. We can’t share the specific mills for competitive reasons, but our campus oxfords follow a fairly traditional heavy oxford construction, which means very thick two-ply yarns in the weft (horizontal) and a slightly thinner one-ply yarn in warp (vertical). This is the construction that Brooks used long ago and we still emulate today. That particular construction is what gives a heavy oxford the feel you expect–the nubby white weft, in particular. Other details matter too–the finishing and yarn provenance, for example–but the yarn size combination and weave is really what makes an oxford an “oxford.”
Oxfords are a really important part of our business and I wear one nearly every day. The hunt for a perfect oxford was a big part of what led me to start the company. With that in mind, we’ve been thinking about how we can expand our oxford offerings beyond our “Campus Oxford” (which is our classic heavyweight oxford).
We offer our monochrome oxfords–those are a little lighter and use the same color yarn in warp and weft. That allows us to have darker solids that have more of a matte finish and visible texture than you’d have if you did the same thing in broadcloth, for example. We also have recently updated our Summer Weight Oxfords by developing an exclusive quality with a mill in Portugal. We found that most summer oxfords on the market were really more like pinpoints, but we wanted an oxford that looked and felt like a classic heavy oxford, but at a weight that could be worn during hotter months. This required us changing up the yarn balance a bit and some trial-and-error, but we’re really happy with the final product.
Finally, our Campus Oxford is our most affordable shirt, and we want to keep it that way, but we do find customers that want the most premium expression of a classic oxford they can find, so look look for us to do something new and exciting at the higher end this year. We’re working on an Italian-milled 2-ply x 3-ply oxford that will be the most luxurious version of a classic heavy oxford you can find.
Hopefully that’s not overkill on detail, but we’re really passionate about oxfords here, so wanted to share as much as possible.
Here’s a big thank you to Ratio for comping me this beautiful shirt and for Eric Powell taking the time to give me such thoughtful responses to my questions!
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