Ireland's answer to Charvet shirts

THERE’S MORE to shopping in Northern Ireland than heaving a trolleyload of plonk and jumbo packs of disposable nappies into the back of an SUV. Newry conjures up Dante’s description of the Fourth Circle of Hell – avarice: “I saw multitudes to every side of me; their howls were loud while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.”

Men who regard shopping malls as the quintessence of misery should continue driving until they reach Belfast – and there seek out Ireland’s best shirt shop. Smyth Gibson, on Bedford Street, is Ireland’s equivalent to the luxury French shirt-maker Charvet, but you don’t need a taoiseach’s salary to be a customer.

Although the shop was founded less than 20 years ago, it represents a proud heritage. Ulster was once the world centre of shirt-making and during the Victorian era helped to clothe the British empire. The industry was based on weaving linen from flax, and at the industry’s peak – before the first World War – shirt-making employed 18,000 people in the city of Derry alone. After decades of decline, Smyth Gibson salvaged some of this tradition and established a small factory in Derry employing 50 people. The company has only one shop, but offers a fitting service for its made-to-measure service in London and Dublin.

The shop, close to the newly refurbished Ulster Hall, is a delight for dapper dressers. There’s a wide selection of ready-to-wear shirts, including the signature classic striped City shirt in two-fold poplin or sea-island cotton with mother-of-pearl buttons. Prices start at £85 (€95), but for real luxury the company also offers bespoke shirt-making and is a specialist provider of law shirts – with detachable collars – for barristers. All the shirts are handmade at the factory in Derry.

smythandgibson.com

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