European shirtmakers

The shirt on your back is one of the more honest tests of a wardrobe. Cheap shirts look fine in a photograph and unravel after fifty washes. A good shirt — properly cut, properly stitched, in a real cotton — gets passed down. Most of the world's best shirtmakers are still in Europe. Some have been making them in the same building for over a hundred years.

The Jermyn Street tradition in London, the Neapolitan school in southern Italy, the haute couture houses of Paris, the German Mittelstand shirt manufacturers, the quiet Swedish premium operators. Together they cover everything from a £40 office shirt to a £400 bespoke piece. America imports almost all of its serious shirts from here.

Below: ten European shirtmakers worth choosing over Brooks Brothers, Charles Tyrwhitt's US offshoots, or J.Crew. Most have been at it for over a century. Several are still family-owned.