I’ve been on a cut and I’ve noticed my gains and my strength are decreasing. What can I do to stop this?

Stop cutting.

No, really. Unless you’re on some sort of insane cocktail of steroids, it’s very difficult to continue to make any significant strength/size gains while significantly cutting fat. The reason for this should be fairly obvious. Without fuel, your muscles are not going to do a damn thing other than, at best, maintain their current size.

This is really why a good bulking/cutting routine is in order, especially if you want to do any sort of cutting at all. During the winter, when it’s less likely that you will have your shirt off, do not hesitate to eat more and weight lift heavier. The focus in this situation should be less cardio (but not no cardio) and heavier, shorter lifting sessions, followed by insane bouts of eating. Once you get some nice gains under your belt (or once you get the idea in your head that you want to run around shirtless), begin a cut and expect a 10%+ reduction in your strength.

Yes, I know, it sucks. But thus is life.

Is “swag” style fashionable?

NO.

There’s no shame in that. But it’s time for some tough love. After polling a selection of women and collecting an insane number of answers, we’ve come up with a realistic list of the five major reasons why women “friend zone” men. This list is gonna hurt, but it’s necessary, because it explains a lot about how women view potential suitors, why a lot of men screw up their opportunities, and, most importantly, it teaches ways in which you can avoid being friend zoned in the future.

Two Preliminary Disclaimers
1: We don’t like the term “friend zone” in any form or fashion. In colloquial use, the “friend zone” refers to a “place” where women put men that they want to be friends with, but not date or have sex with. Though this sounds innocuous on its face, this whole terminology tends to imply some pretty stupid things: namely, that the idiotic “ladder theory” is at all viable, that women do this stuff consciously, that men are always shoved into a “zone,” and that (implicitly) men should do anything to avoid being a friend of a women. All of our polling of women did use this term, but we explained it to contextualize it.  Suffice to say, we use “friend zoned” here only because it’s familiar to most of our readers, not because it implies we think it’s an actual thing. This article is more about the reasons why men fail with women generally.

2: The polling base for this article was a selection of approximately 40 women between the ages of 18 and 27.  This age range was selected in order to best match our readerbase.  These women live all across the country, are generally college educated (or better), and voluntarily responded to the poll.  That being said, our results are very much limited by our polling base — so don’t take this as absolute gospel truth. There’s a specific issue with this demographic that I’m particularly concerned about, which I address below when it becomes relevant.

Reason #5: You are/were not readily available.

About 10% of girls that responded indicated that guys they would have normally dated were put in the friend zone because they were not “available” – meaning, as far as we can tell, that they were not easily dated. Often, this appears to be an issue when the guy lives far away (long drives make for infrequent meetings), when the guy is very busy, or when he tends to hang out with other people to the detriment of his availability.  Somewhat ironically, this can sometimes mean that a very successful guy with a job is less preferable than a guy with a crappy part-time job and lots of disposable time.

What you can learn:

Be available, but don’t be too available. On one hand, you should be available in the sense that you can realistically date the girl you want to date — after all, if you can’t date her, she’ll obviously not consider you a candidate to date anyway. On the other hand, sacrificing your life — be it work, social, or otherwise — to make yourself “available” is stupid and creepy.  This standard also varies based on the girl, so needier girls will demand more time, whereas more independent (and usually more career-focused) girls will be happier with less of your time. Adjust accordingly.

Reason #4: You pushed too hard.

No, really. At least 20% of the girls we polled indicated that, in addition to other reasons (listed above/below), the guy they friend zoned tried too hard to get their attention. This seems a bit backwards (it’s like saying “I liked you and wanted to date you until you hit on me”), but it reveals something important about the whole dynamic between suitors and women:

Girls are not oblivious to the fact that you like them. This is not an amazing revelation, but simply a statement of fact: if you’ve been pining after a girl for a while, unless you’ve had zero social contact with her, chances are she is fully aware that you like her, and she is intentionally staying away from you. The reason most women indicated that a guy “pushed too hard” probably had little to do with why a girl friend zoned a guy, but rather seems to indicate that his pushiness helped solidify her decision to avoid him. In essence, the harder you push with a girl with no interest in you, the worse it will get.

What you can learn:

If it doesn’t come naturally and the girl puts up a lot of brick walls, don’t try to break them down to see if she’s “interested.” If she’s pushing back, she’s not interested.

Reason #3: You had/have no future.

Along with the “pushing too hard” comment, a substantial number of girls (nearly 20%) indicated that the men they put in the friend zone had no future. This was often lumped into a man’s attractiveness (see below), but it seemed a pretty dominant factor in their thought processes independent of looks.

In essence, it appears that girls, after determining whether or not they find a guy attractive (again, see below), tend to do a lot of calculations regarding a guy’s social and economic worth. Where a guy seems to have a “future” — and I mean “future” usually in the future where “he’ll do ______ like I imagine my future husband will do” — a girl is more likely to date him. Consequently, where a guy is clearly a sort of stereotypical loser — no job, no prospects, no social worth, etc — his social value is lessened and, thus, his desirability lowers.

What you can learn:

Work hard on yourself before you jump into the dating pool. While a lot of womens’ responses regarding a man’s “future” were somewhat vague or stupid (sorry, girls, but they were difficult to parse), the message is fairly clear: the more you improve yourself and your social/economic standing, the more desirable you are. Succeed at work and you’ll succeed at women.

Incidentally, this should also mean that you should be realistic about the kind of women you can date.  If you are content with living in a small town and not doing much, don’t expect to date a cosmopolitan millionaire baby who wants to travel the world.  Attraction plays a lot of a part in romance, but rational compatibility is also a pretty important component to the calculus of love.

Reason #2: You were creepy.

At LEAST 50% of women we polled indicated that “creepiness” was a major factor in our poll. This, in other words, means that chances are creepiness played a part in why you were friend zoned, if you ever have been friend zoned at all.

So far as we can tell from parsing the results we acquired, being “creepy” takes on a lot of forms. On one hand, a lot of women polled indicated that the word “creepy” referred to how overtly sexual and awkward the guy was towards her — treating her differently, being overly serious with her, overly dramatic showings of favoritism, etc. On the other hand, other women defined “creepy” as things like being a social recluse, only being able to talk about anime pornography, and the like.

What you can learn:

Don’t be creepy. Unfortunately, creepiness — like mental insanity — is somewhat difficult to self-diagnose. Have a close female friend honestly give you pointers. If she mentions anything close to the word “creepy” — including but not limited to comments about you being “tryhard,” pushy, awkward, etc — fix it, immediately.

There’s also something else to note here: a lot of the behavior women associate with “creepiness” is often the result of a guy expecting a vending machine relationship.  By a “vending machine relationship,” I mean the attitude a guy takes in a relationship where he feels as if things he does (being nice, helping a girl with homework, etc) should immediately and directly translate into benefits (dating, sex, etc).  Where a guy is frustrated in this scenario, he often comes across as awkward, unnecessarily “nice,” or just weird.  Thus, even if you aren’t a greasy basement dweller wearing anime t-shirts, you can be “creepy” by being a vending machine sort of guy — so don’t do it.

Reason #1: You aren’t attractive/her “type.”

So, this is the part where I feel guilty for writing this article.

A full one hundred percent of women we polled indicated, in one way or another, that attractiveness was a reason for friend zoning a guy. Most of those polled – over 75% – indicated that this was the dispositive or sole reason that they friend zoned a guy. In other words, assuming that the women we polled fairly represent a cross-section of women (though see the limitations above), attractiveness is pretty much the core reason why men get friend zoned.

Admittedly, this isn’t the kind of result we wanted to get. It’s highly vain, unrealistic, and pretty damn mean. And, perhaps worse, it reflects really poorly on the women we polled. But it’s the result we got.

So what does this mean? Chances are, if you got friend zoned, your attractiveness played a part in it.

For those of you who are curious, women polled indicated that the following things fell into their definition of a man’s attractiveness: his overall facial structure, his smile, his hair, how he was dressed, his musculature (especially shoulders, biceps, and forearms, but sometimes including abs), his posture, and his penis size (don’t ask me how that can be determined from a “friend”). They also indicated that, much like men, they evaluate these things very early on when meeting a guy.

What you can learn:

While this result seems like a dead end, in reality, there’s a lot that can be done about your appearance, and you should probably do them. While certain things cannot be changed without plastic surgery (see: facial structure, etc), a lot of other things can be changed with effort. With braces (if necessary), a new haircut, a good exercise routine, a new wardrobe, and the like, chances are you can fix a lot about yourself that was messed up before.

But there’s also something else you can learn from this: chances are, if a girl puts you in the friend zone because she found you unattractive, you probably shouldn’t bother pursuing her, especially if you are taking care of yourself already. If you are putting forth every effort possible to make yourself look good — and by that I mean working out, maintaining a good hygiene routine, dressing well, etc — the girl is not for you. Not everyone will find you hot, and that’s perfectly fine, as even the most allegedly hot actors and actresses have their detractors.

As a side note, and on a more editorial side, this may just say a lot about young women. As noted above, the women we polled were young – usually barely out of college, if that. These girls are at their sexual and social peak, and many of them have the luxury of being arrogant about looks, oftentimes notwithstanding their own oddities, shortcomings, and problems. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this — no-one is faulting them for enjoying their power over men while they have it. But still, this result may have a lot to do with the fact that many of the women we polled have no desire to find a decent guy yet – a lot are admittedly just out to enjoy themselves, constantly pursuing their unrealistic image of the Ivy league educated Disney prince with a six-pack and a billion in the bank.  In other words, our results may be limited to the demographic we polled - so don’t freak out about this too much.

Still, though, there’s nothing wrong with self improvement. That’s what this whole website is for, after all. Just do it for yourself — not for a girl who turns you down.

Get off Facebook and visit people

This one is obvious. Social Media is making you miserable. Social Media is a great way for us to connect or to reconnect with people. You no longer have to send snail-mail or greeting cards to people who are far away. You can get in contact with them as if they are standing in front of you. With this gift, however, there’s lots of negatives.

Studies suggest that when you read people’s status updates or see their party pictures, it makes you lonely and miserable. It’s a feeling of isolation, usually when you check Facebook you are probably alone. Friends are a great source of anti-anxiety as there’s more focus on things, not just yourself.

The Internet can only mimic sociability to a point. Once you reach a certain degree, it begins to weigh down on you. In real life, there’s body language, physical affection and not to mention activities you can do together. Like the phone in the ’90s, the Internet can only bring us so far before it starts weighing us down because you lack those things of a healthy social life.

That’s not to say you will always feel miserable, but you can’t really connect strongly without those factors. Miracles happen and people marry after meeting online, but they took the initiative of meeting them in real life. See where this is going? Get off Facebook and meet with them in real life, it’ll pay off right away.

You are overthinking the issues in your life right now

We often overestimate the magnitude of an issue in our life and the dire consequences surrounding it. Our brains are automatically overestimating everything. You need to train your brain to not be so hard on yourself, or think of yourself in a very bad light, you don’t deserve it. Sure, one of the seven deadly sins is pride and arrogance turns people off, but if you wade around life without stepping on toes or pissing some people off, people won’t respect you.

Respect in yourself is earned when you break your comfort zone and step out. The ambition to change yourself could, in turn, earn the respect of others. You are in your comfort zone because you feel that if you step into the uncharted territories, the consequences will be dire and you’ll pay the price. It causes a great deal of stress getting near the end of your comfort zone, which in your head turns into bad vibes.

For example, you are out and you want to ask the girl for her number. Your mind goes to work and thinks, “well what if I come off as creepy?”. We all have a fear of not being creepy or unwanted because of our actions. If you shut down and don’t try, your brain will add that negative energy and you will actually build a fear based on what went down.

There’s a couple of things you need to remember from the above example.

• A. You are overestimating the failures. Right off the bat, you are over-thinking it. If you come off as creepy, you will not be branded as such, even if you live in a small town. You’ll be rejected, worst-case scenario you are the butt of the joke for like a week. Failures are nothing more than ways to understand life through trial and error.

• B. She has issues of her own in her life right now. Sure, she may laugh and maybe her friends will join in the laughter, but sooner or later, they will go back to life because they have problems of their own. The world is big and no one is perfect. We all have problems and our own fears, some more than others. Most of the time, the way people present themselves are not consistent to whom they are. We forget this fact often, which fuels the anxiety into thinking that they are who they appear to be.

• C. Just do it and don’t think. Thinking is what fuels the negative energy which gives birth to fear and anxiety. If you just do what you love or want without thinking, you will finish whether or not you get what you wanted out of it. Never plan for an ending, roll with what you get and take action soon after.

Don’t let the mind run you into a corner

The one main reasons for lots of stress and panic attacks is the sense of insecurity about one’s health. You may have caught yourself into a bad panic attack thinking that you were going to die. When in fact, panic attacks are the body’s fight-or-flight response gone haywire. If you are completely convinced that some ache or pain you are experiencing is going to kill you, you will go into a panic attack.

The mind is the worst enemy against avoiding a situation like that. If a lot of bad experiences you’ve had start adding up towards something similar, you will start to assume it’s going to happen again. The right thing to do is to stop thinking about it but forcing yourself to not think about it will make you think about it even more.

You need to take control and let the past die hard. You are not cursed or have bad karma, you are not going to die and that ache is probably a physical reaction to stress if anything. Your brain is messing with you and you need to outweigh it.

Identify and eliminate the sources of stress

If you are suffering lots of anxiety issues during your normal day, with some panic attacks, it’s time to take action. With anxiety, unless you have an underlying medical cause, there is no such thing as anxiety without an origin or cause. Rest easy, your body is not forcing stress upon you for no reason.

If you feel anxious, break down what you were thinking about or the Environment around you. If it helps, jot down what you were thinking. Even the things that cause little stress matters, write them down too. The threshold of everything stressful piles up fast and leaves you overwhelmed with no ambition. Break the ambition and don’t give in or it will not resolve.

Forgive anyone that has done bad in your life and hasn’t gotten theirs yet. Apologize to someone that you remembered you’ve hurt years ago. Resolve the unresolved. If it’s impossible, move on. Life isn’t always fair and just accept it for what it is. Once you start accepting, it’ll start paying off mentally and physically quickly.

Is a no-fap regime or nofap month worth it?  I hear there can be test gains after a week.

No, it is not worth it.

For those not in the know, there is a strong trend today popping up on the Internet: avoiding masturbation. While this apparently started on bodybuilding boards in some sort of attempt to raise testosterone levels (hinging on studies like this one, showing elevated levels of testosterone in males after three weeks of abstinence), the nofap trend has since evolved into some sort of “prove your self-discipline” circle-jerk. For some reason, this sort of thing has gotten really popular.

But let me approach the justifications for this nonsense in reverse order.

First off, if you really need to stop touching yourself in order to prove your self-control, you have larger issues than touching yourself. While a lot of guys are now addicted (in one way or another) to pornography, the idea that quitting masturbation is the sine qua non to personal fulfillment is stupid. Obsessing over not touching yourself can be just as bad as obsessing over touching yourself — both make you a slave to some problem or issue, albeit in different directions. Whether it is abstinence, masturbation, sex, drinking, eating, or whatever, if you have to fight against it and turn it into some sort of lifestyle, chances are it still has control over you.

Second off, stop worrying about testosterone — you probably aren’t doing other things right anyway. If you really feel like you need an extra “boost” in the gym to raise your 1RMs and to make yourself stronger, go binge on a bunch of McDonalds and do squats every day you enter the gym for the next month. Testosterone does play a part in weight lifting and other exercises, but there are a lot more efficient ways to get stronger that involve actual gym-related work.

Men usually mess up when they message girls.

Read their profile.

Most guys start looking at their pictures and then send a message, trying something witty to get a reply back. The profile is up there for a reason: they want you to know them before you even talk, read that sucker. Don’t skim it or you might miss some hints (sometimes girls throw in these easter egg hints to make sure people are paying attention) and act on those hints if they basically demand it. (Example: “Don’t message me with Hi”, etc.)

Keep messages simple.

Messaging her with something small like “Hi”, not only wastes her time but it also wastes yours. You will not get a message this way. There’s no motion, no flow, no subject, no reason to continue the conversation. It also shows that you’re under-confident. You want to hook her in, not have a casual chat that lasts 5 minutes. Poke with her interests, mention something that you both are interested in and go from there.

Don’t go overboard.

A compliment is sufficient, Luis, but don’t go overboard. You could say “Nice hair,” but do not dwell on her physical appearance, change the subject up after the initial “Thanks”. It’d appear as creepy and/or desperate if you just harp on her physical traits over a whole profile of interests. Of course, don’t be scared to compliment her once in a while since you’re both on the site probably for the same reason, just don’t remind her everyday.

Keep the conversation fluid.

I can’t really stress how important this is. You probably already heard me tell you to not dwell on things, well, do not dwell on anything! Keep the Conversation interesting, answer her questions with more than one word, give her your knowledge of what you know. Don’t act like you were just born yesterday and all you can do is say “Yes” or “No”. If you have 21 years under your belt, use that 21 years to your advantage and show her what you know. If she’s disinterested, move onto something else she might be interested in. Sometimes these dating sites are a fight to keep their attention and a stale conversation will not work.

Be yourself.

This is most important. We can all act like we know this-or-that but when it comes down to it, we can get caught. Do NOT lie about yourself. If you don’t like a certain band she loves, don’t act like you love it, just tell her you’re not a big fan and keep your rants to yourself. Don’t mold yourself into something you’re not, in the end, it only confuses you and potentially loses a date. Just sell yourself for what you’re worth and get a great self-image – you deserve it.

A lot of websites are now promoting home workouts, like P90X. Should I do them to get ripped?

No.

Admittedly, programs like Convict Conditioning and P90X have some benefit. If you do some light cardio and body weight workouts at home, and if you diet well enough, you will probably lose weight.

That being said, if you walk fast enough and long enough, you can walk from New York to California.

If you want to become muscular, than working out with free weights — not machines, not body weight, but actual big boy barbells and plates and sometimes dumbbells — will get you muscular. Once you get muscle, you can cut away body fat and look ripped, or you can bulk up and get stronger. The process is not hard, it just requires you to leave your damn apartment.

I totally understand that going to the gym three times a week can seem difficult, but man up. If you want the body, you’re going to have to work for it, both in the gym and in the process of getting to the gym. Don’t take the slower, more inefficient path just because you’re scared of social interaction.

Perhaps to address this issue more directly, a new market is cropping up – made-to-measure shirting available online from foreign countries. Made-to-measure shirting is far from new, but it has now become more available than ever before, and it is highly tempting to experiment with.

By far one of the most popular made-to-measure outfits online is Modern Tailor, a fast-growing mens’ made-to-measure outfitter that sells made-to-measure shirts, suits, jackets/blazers, vests, pants, and the like.  Modern Tailor is something of an awesome little company — it not only provides made-to-measure suiting for classical dress, but also has the flexibility go go wild and (at the time of writing this) provide a Gangnam Style collection for whatever reason.

Needless to say, Modern Tailor has had our eye for quite a while, and it’s about time I mercilessly over-analyzed one of their shirts.

Ordering from Modern Tailor

Modern Tailor is a fairly standard made-to-measure outfitter. Placing a new order takes about 20 minutes, which consists of picking out the style of shirt (from an absolutely drool-worthy array of options regarding everything from collar style to cuff style to placket style), picking out the fabric of the shirt (from a freaking insane number of high-quality fabrics), and measuring your sizes. Everything about the process is straightforward and easy, but it has the level of detail that provides even the pickiest people (i.e. me) satisfaction. Suffice to say, there is absolutely nothing to complain about on the ordering front.

Modern Tailor’s measuring system, while time-consuming, is very straightforward. Modern Tailor is smart enough to guide you through the self-measuring process, and even allows you to input the measurements of a well-fitting shirt (instead of your body) if necessary. This is absolutely phenomenal, no complaints there.

Pricing

Pricing is also fairly straightforward — fabrics are  tied to prices which (largely) reflect the cost of the fabric.  This may seem odd to some, but it actually comes across as quite fair — basic fabrics that move quickly are cheaper, while the fancier fabrics tend to be pricier.  The fabric variety is absolutely insane, which should please even the pickiest of the sartorially inclined.

Shipping: The China Experience

It should surprise absolutely no-one that Modern Tailor has its clothing made in China. This isn’t itself a problem: most clothiers make their clothing in some foreign country. Still, because you are ordering made-to-measure directly from the factory, this means that shipping can take what feels like forever.

In my personal experience, shipping took approximately one and a half weeks, and it arrived entirely in one piece with not a visible scuff mark on it. As someone who has ordered numerous times from foreign countries, this is actually quite surprising — even small orders from Japan can take upwards of two weeks or more depending on the item.

Despite how impressed I was with the shipping speed from Modern Tailor, one obvious flaw stuck out: the tracking of my package. As Modern Tailor apparently uses a Chinese shipping company to deliver their items, tracking is conducted by strange Chinese websites that rarely load. Modern Tailor also sent me two websites — http://www.sxyexpress.cn/ and http://en.ald365.com/ — to track the same order, thoroughly confusing the hell out of me (as neither could actually track my package).

So the message here is simple: you’ll get your package relatively quickly and in good shape, but don’t expect to know where your package is at any given time before it arrives at your doorstep.

Our Setup

Before I begin nitpicking the hell out of the shirt I received from Modern Tailor, allow me to explain precisely what I purchased (and what I did before reviewing).

First, the shirt I ordered was a simple trial black shirt with a basic collar (“Classic (Back Height 3.7 cm, collar point 7.5 cm) / Stiff“), with no pocket, barrel cuffs with two buttons, and no placket. The shirt was given with my personal measurements, which are highly unusual (I have a massive, 4″+ disparity between my chest and my waist due to weight lifting), in order to test how Modern Tailor handled an unusual order.

A very important caveat about the above: this shirt is the trial shirt made available in early 2012 for evaluation by those trying out Modern Tailor for the first time. Accordingly, Modern Tailor made it clear well in advance that this fabric is not of the quality of their regular shirts — it is intentionally cheap, and really apparently meant to serve as a guide for future (pricier) orders. That being said, this review will not focus too heavily on fabric quality, though I will note that even their “cheap” fabric is notably better than other cheaper brands I have reviewed before (specifically, Gap, Express, the cheaper Banana Republic line, etc).

In order to conduct a very basic test the shirt’s durability, it was washed twice on a gentle cycle and hang-dried. It was ironed before photography with starch, which partially accounts for some of the light white marks and unusual shininess in the photographs below.

An unflattering shot of the entire shirt post-wash. It held up perfectly, with no noticeable shrinkage. (Click to Enlarge) The shirt’s collar is layered and reinforced, which is a pleasant surprise. (Click to Enlarge) The shirt’s cuff. Note the poor stitching on the button-holes and the buttons. (Click to Enlarge) A large image of the fabric, which has no noticeable flaws. (Click to Enlarge) A close-up of the internal stitching. (Click to Enlarge)

The Review Modern Tailor may not produce the best made shirts in the world, but their shirts are so damn good they may very well have saved me from the cult of Brooks Brothers shirts. As a preliminary matter, the Modern Tailor shirt I got was surprisingly well made. While the fabric itself was fairly basic (see above — this was a trial shirt with intentionally cheap fabric), the fabric was stiff and well made where it really counted. The collar was just as stiff as a high-end Brooks Brothers shirt, making collar stays almost unnecessary. The cuffs were well made and firm, though not abrasive to the wrists. Generally, everything felt like a high end shirt from a high-end clothier — a surprising development, considering the shirt was made in a random factory in China. The stitching is also impressive. While most stitching (especially on made-to-measure shirts) is quite poor, particularly where customers do not look, most of the stitching on Modern Tailor’s shirt is solid, well-done, and without perceivable deviation or error. Even with my ridiculous proportions (which typically lend tailors some issue), the stitching is clean-looking and well-done. With the exception of the buttons (see below), everything feels solid as a rock. I hate to continue the incessant comparisons to Brooks Brothers, but it’s hard to not make the comparison here — the shirt is as well made as a Brooks Brothers shirt, and even might trump Brooks Brothers’ cheaper 346 line for the most part. The one place the shirt falls apart is in the buttons, though this issue is minor (if existent at all). For whatever reason, the stitching on the buttons and button-holes of the shirt I received is slightly messy. While there is no indication that either the buttons or button-holes will fall apart any time soon, it appears that the buttons and button-holes were done in haste, which left some stray threads. This is an issue with a huge number of shirts, even those off-the-rack, but it is worthy of note — it may be worth spending some time with a small pair of scissors fixing the minor issues yourself. In terms of wear, due to the cheapness of the fabric (which is, again, expected due to the fact this is a trial shirt), the shirt wears very well and actually manages to feel remarkably solid. With the right fabric (and shoulder size, see below), this shirt would unquestionably be a staple of my wardrobe. In terms of measuring and fit, I was both pleasantly surprised and slightly disappointed. As a general matter, the shirt was tailored impeccably, with every small size change I requested accounted for. However, for some odd reason (likely due to my own error), the shoulder size on my shirt was over an inch too large, rendering the shirt too baggy for me to wear without feeling ridiculous. This may be an unfortunate result of my own attempts at self-measuring — accordingly, it may be worth your time to simply measure a tailored shirt that fits you well. Nonetheless, the sheer fact that I’m disappointed I can’t wear this shirt speaks to how highly I think of its tailoring: were it not for the shoulder issue, I would happily wear this shirt as much as humanly possible, cheap fabric be damned. Conclusion/Thoughts So, the million dollar question is, should you get a Modern Tailor shirt? The answer is yes, but there are some caveats. If you are someone who needs custom-made shirts and want to skip the process of getting an off-the-rack shirt tailored, then Modern Tailors’ shirts will be your godsend. Modern Tailor shirts are far from cheap (shirts start at $60 and only go higher), but in comparison to the average cost of getting a high quality shirt from Brooks Brothers purchased and tailored (~$80 for the shirt plus $10-20 for tailoring), Modern Tailor’s price is not exorbitant. That being said, if you are fairly skinny or just don’t need a high-end dress shirt, Modern Tailor may not be for you. Because many clothiers (especially trendier/younger brands) are now adjusting their sizing to fit slimmer builds, it obviously makes no sense to pay upwards of $60 for a shirt when you can get something relatively well-fitting for cheaper. This applies doubly if you don’t need a dress shirt often, for obvious reasons. So the takeaway here is pretty obvious: if you are already plunking down over $50 for tailored dress shirts, or would like to do so in the near future, Modern Tailor is almost as good as Brooks Brothers in terms of construction quality and general style. If you are willing to take the risks of measurement and ordering from China, Modern Tailors’ products are damn fine.