A reader asks - can I find a British-made white shirt?

From time to time readers write to ask where they can find certain items of clothing. Generally I have no more idea than they do; try Google is the sensible advice. However, I was recently asked whether it is possible to buy a reasonably-priced British-made white shirt. This intrigued me - every man should own a crisp white shirt - so I set out on a search and recruited the help of Twitter users to see what could be unearthed. I arbitrarily set £100 as the top price limit, but have shown some flexibility over this.

Every man should own a crisp (?) British-made white shirt

It doesn't seem long ago that one could buy reasonably-priced British-made shirts in M&S and John Lewis - generally made in Lancashire and Yorkshire, traditional home to our cotton trade. But most now seem to be made almost anywhere but in the UK - I even found some made in France. In these days of sustainable fashion, how can it be cheaper to source shirts within Europe than here? Anyway, not for me to wonder - what did I discover? To my delight, it is possible to find white UK-made shirts.

I doubt this list is complete. If you sell white shirts that fill the criteria please let me know, as I am happy to write a follow-up. Secondly, I have taken it on good faith that these are genuine British-manufactured products - it's up to you, the buyer, to check for yourself if it's really important to you.

British White Shirts

Pride of place has to go to a wonderful outfit that, I'm ashamed to say, I hadn't heard of. Mamnick make white shirts in Yorkshire for £95. The supply of this cotton oxford shirt is limited, but I had many people contact me in glowing terms about Mamnick, suggesting much about the quality of service and product.

Mamnick

Apricot Shirts looks interesting too. All their products are Lancashire-made (so I assume they wouldn't talk to their Yorkshire colleagues at Mamnick) and are priced at not far from our £100 limit.

Smyth and Gibson make shirts in their factory in Derry, Northern Ireland. Prices vary, but are just under or over our limit of £100.

Smyth and Gibson

Hilditch & Key, all of whose shirts are made in UK. Prices from around £100.

Another Northern Ireland manufacturer is Grosvenor, who have a factory in Strabane. Their white shirt costs around £100. They have shops in St James's and Mayfair.

I mention Oswald & Kane because their shirts are British-made and reasonably priced. They don't sell a white shirt yet, but watch them, as this may change.