Varchi Custom Shirts
Blink and you´ll miss it. It´s a house on Himes Avenue not far from I-275. Block letters on the mailbox say ¨Shirtmaker.¨ Inside is a tiny showroom with yards and yards of fine cloth draped on holders — in dozens of colors and designs. Paolo, the Shirtmaker, is a feisty Italian with the musical accent of his homeland. It´s a simple process, really. You pick your fabric, get measured, choose collar and cuff styles from drawings in a book (or you can just describe them to Paolo), discuss the general cut (trim-fit, traditional, blousy) and off you go. You can usually take delivery in 10 days to two weeks. The shirtmaker´s work is splendid. There´s nothing like wearing a shirt, especially a dress shirt, that´s tailored to fit your body. Maybe best of all is that Varchi shirts cost $95 apiece. If a comparable garment sported another Italian label (Armani, Gucci, Zegna, etc.), it could cost three or four times as much — and that´s without the custom tailoring.
Varchi Custom Shirts, 205 N. Himes Ave., Tampa, 813-879-2019.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.