Lee Baron (Shirt Review)

We didn’t take them up on their three business day turnaround time and we picked it up one week later. The first noticeable detail on the shirt was that the collar didn’t appear to be the one we asked for. We had requested a semi-spread collar but instead received a spread collar – we let this one slide and decided to review the shirt anyways.

Our first impressions of the shirt fit were very good, especially when considering the price. The shirt was slim but not too snug. Exactly what we wanted. When looking at the shirt from the front there were still some diagonal rumples running down the shirt but this was not too unsightly.

The lateral view shows clean shoulder/sleeve transition. There is also no excess fabric at the shoulder blades. The sleeve length is good and the sleeves themselves are not too baggy or tight.

From the back we can see a nice shape born from the waist suppression. There’s no pulling at the armpit area which also means there’s sufficient room in the upper back for movement.

A decent shirt length allows for less un-tucking during movement. There’s clear tapering out from the hip area to account for the buttocks.

Pattern matching is satisfactory with only a slight mismatch from one shoulder area. Some loose stitches are visible which is similar to our shirt from Jantzen but nowhere near as extreme.

Satisfying pattern matching with the sleeve placket, an improvement from previous Lee Baron shirts.

We noticed they changed their button stitching from a parallel stitch to a cross stitch. Judging from this and the improved craftsmanship, we suspect that they may have changed workshops.

To put it simply, we liked this shirt. We liked it even more when we remembered how little we paid for it in comparison to some of the more expensive tailors. It satisfied all of our criteria when it comes to fit and craftsmanship – at least to our personal standards. If we had to nitpick, the only mistake was the collar style (which is still an easy fix). Starting at a mere $280, they beat the competition with quality, service and efficiency. Lee Baron may not be the Styleforum sweetheart anymore but it won us over with this shirt.

+ Value for money

– Prone to mistakes

Lee Baron (Store Visit)

Determined to find a good ‘value for money’ proposition, we knew we had to review Lee Baron – the (former) Styleforum darling known for its solid quality. A few years ago both of us had suits and shirts made here with satisfactory results but as we wanted to explore the tailoring scene we hadn’t been back in a long time. Did they still maintain their standard at competitive prices?

The messiness of the shop was just as we remembered it, with rolls of house fabric haphazardly stacked. Obviously Lee Baron had not built their reputation on glamour and fancy decorations.

The staff were friendly and casual, recognizing or at least pretending to recognize us. They pointed us towards the fabric choices but were not pushy in any way about what to order. There was plenty of variety with the house fabrics but for those who want more some nondescript fabric books had fabrics priced $500+. The house fabrics had two pricing ‘tiers’ of $280 or $380. We ended up choosing a $380 house fabric.

Peter Lee himself was at the shop and amicable as usual. Although we knew we could request his expertise for measurements,  one of his staff was able to confidently measure JL up and take the prescription for the shirt, familiar with shirting terms and preferences. After taking our order we were informed the shirt would take a mere 3 working days to be ready – a pretty amazing feat in itself.

+ Fast 3 day turnaround time

– Shop is cluttered and claustrophobic

More Info:

1. Turnaround time 3 days
2. MOP buttons offered for an additional $50 HKD
3. $280/$380 for house fabrics, more expensive options available
4. First time customers have a minimum order of two shirts

Address: 33 Ground Floor, Far East Mansion, 5-6 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui