That shirt is how much!?!?
Ben Tobar
Just had a gentlemen stop in the store who was admiring the pattern choices of our Isaia and Ermenegildo Zegna shirting fabrics. He was quite excited to see all that we had to offer and began to hoard them into a small pile; that is until he pulled out a price tag. The dialogue that followed is something that happens from time to time at our business.
"Is this shirt really X amount?"
"Yes, sir."
"What makes it that price?"
(Insert deep breath) "Well..."
I could talk about fabric, and how the cotton is woven so tightly that it is resistant to wrinkles. Or, I could talk about how there are no chemicals used in making the cotton that can irritate your skin. Or I could talk about the minuscule pleating that is found around each seam that shows hand craftsmanship and is there to give the seams of the shirt a little bit of give (translate: stretch). I could also talk about the four to six man hours it takes to complete one shirt.
However, I am not going to talk about any of those things. I am just going to talk about buttons. The buttons on each of these shirts are hand cut from coral shells distinctive to the Mediterranean. They are known for their resilience and their resistance to heat/cracking, and each one is polished and sewn on by hand. To put things in perspective, one should compare these coral buttons to plastic buttons. When a shirting company purchases plastic buttons they buy them in bulk; meaning on average 1,000 buttons go for about $1.00. Each coral button, that's right, one coral button costs $1.00. SOOOO....after doing the math on one shirt, in just buttons, it cost the company around $14.00. That is the kind of attention to detail you will find in every special piece you find at A.K.RIKK'S.
"The memory of bad quality lasts longer than the shock of high prices"
As you were.