Indochino was founded in 2007 by Kyle Vucko and Heikal Gani, two college students who were having a hard time finding suits that fit. During their search, the pair stumbled onto one of the great secrets of the apparel world: Expert tailors in Shanghai will custom-make men's clothes for a fraction of what you'll pay in the West. (If you happen to be visiting China, don't forget to pack your best suit; you can get replicas made for about $100 each.) The firm has since expanded into shirts and pants, and it's raised a bundle of venture-capital money in the process.

Vucko and Gani have spent the money well. I found Indochino to be the best-designed of the sites I tried. It features better photos of the clothes and a more intuitive process to customize your selections. I was particularly fond of the site's measurement wizard. There are many measurements that go into making a shirt—not just neck and chest size, the main factors in off-the-rack shirts, but also your stomach, bicep, and wrist circumference, and the length of your shoulders, sleeves, and torso. For each of these steps, Indochino has a very helpful video showing you exactly how to take your size. (You should have someone else measure you.)

On the other hand, Indochino has a smaller selection of shirts than the other retailers I tried. There are about three dozen fabrics, and too many of them are in muted, middle-manager shades of blue and white. The site allows you to customize your shirt in a number of ways—there are eight different collar and cuff styles, and you can have the shirt monogrammed. The other sites, though, allow for even more customization, like different pocket styles and the option to add contrasting fabrics on the inside of your collar and cuff. (Indochino will only let you get a contrasting outer collar and cuff, and only in white fabric.) Indochino's return policy is also slightly less generous than other firms'. I did like its Perfect Fit Guarantee—the company will give you up to $75 to have your shirt, pants, or suit altered by any local tailor—but if you want a refund (say you hate the fabric you chose), you've got to send back your order unaltered within seven days of receipt, and you've got to pay for shipping.

All that said, the shirt I got from Indochino was beautiful. The fabric was soft, the tailoring expert, and the fit just perfect. It was fast, too: From start to finish, my shirt took two weeks to get to my door.

J. Hilburn
Shirts range from $79 to $159; some customization options cost extra. My final shirt price was $154. Made-to-fit trousers start at $125.

Like Indochino, J. Hilburn was founded in 2007 and has also attracted a ton of venture capital money. But J. Hilburn's founders were cut from a different cloth; they describe themselves as "a couple of Wall Street guys with a passion for custom-made dress shirts and for the way we felt wearing great-fitting clothes." As a result, their shop is a much more luxurious affair than the others.

Source: www.slate.com