Twelve's Red Pyramid Shirt

Though there were several unusual outfit choices during Series 10, the one worn in 'The Pyramid at the End of the World' is quite high up the list. A plausible canonical explanation for this unusual style was that the Doctor was blind at the time, though he had dressed strangely before his loss of vision.

It's a weird combo, trust Capaldi to pull it off.

The 'Wild Flowers' Liberty London fabric used to make this shirt is still available and several people have already made replicas of Capaldi's shirt using this screen accurate fabric. In this article I will be discussing how to make a replica of this shirt as accurate as possible. Although I will not be going into specific dye blends or the exact buttons used on the shirt I will be discussing the design features and pattern of the shirt.

Importantly, regarding this shirt's design, although it was based on the Budd white soyella shirt this one was not actually made by Budd and does have at least one design difference. Unlike the Budd which has an unusually wide 1.50 inch button placket, this shirt is devoid of any placket around the front buttons. There is what appears to be a seam on the other side of the buttons but no folding of the fabric to make the symmetry of a placket. Given that most of this shirt is covered by the coat it is impossible to tell if there are any other small design differences hidden away but on the balance of probability it is most likely the same, hence I will assume they are otherwise identical and will be using the Budd shirt as a design guide.

Note the lack of a placket around the buttons.

When conveying to a tailor the key features about this shirt the following observations will help to make a replica as accurate as possible, these observations have been taken directly from a screen accurate Budd soyella shirt with all Capaldi spec customisations and measurements taken to the nearest quarter inch. The collar should be made to be 3.25 inches in length with a height at the rear of 1.50 inches, in addition the points of the collar are 4.00 inches apart at their widest point. Capaldi's Budd shirt has 3.25 inch French cuffs (being slightly different in size to the stock soyella shirt) and no button fastening on the sleeve placket, though obviously this detail is less important than the collar and placket-less front. Although never seen, the rear of the Budd shirt has a split yoke and pleats but is otherwise plain. Finally, the shirt is cut rather long in order to remain tucked in, though Peter rebelliously wears it untucked, see pictures for the exact base design.

One further thing to note is that Capaldi's shirt was specially tailored specifically for him, hence is an excellent fit. When considering sizing for yourself be sure to go for a fitted cut, on the slimmer side of things but certainly not overly tight or skinny.

This shot gives a good insight into the cuffs.

Although I will not be discussing exact dye blends as Thomas Dunn has already covered that well in his blog I feel it is important to make a few observations about it. The shirt was hand dyed in multiple dye baths to achieve the final colour, the heat shrinkage around the seams suggests this was done after the shirt was made, assuming it wasn't just washed at too high a heat before filming. This is an odd order of doing things, ideally fabric should be dyed before tailoring to avoid shrinkage like this. Unusually, the stitching in the shirt matches the final red colour of the fabric save for the cuffs, which use white thread. Stitching is nearly always synthetic, meaning it should be unaffected by the dye. The only explanations I can really think of is that either a red fabric pen might was used to touch up some of the stitching or that the shirt was made with two different colours of thread.

Personally, if I were having a shirt made I would probably dye the fabric before tailoring, then have it made with contrasting white stitching on the cuffs, that way there is a lesser probability of shrinkage issues. As for where to go to have your fabric tailored I would ideally recommend a local tailor however certain online tailors like ModernTailor are willing to work with fabric they are sent. None of their stock collars are exactly like the Budd so if going this way it would be best to ask them to extend the length slightly of their classic medium collar to 3.25 inches (83mm) and keep the back height around the same get it as accurate as possible.

Special thanks go to 'skc_III' on Instagram for the measurements of the Budd shirt.