iTailor Guide: Ten's Anniversary Shirt

With David Tennant's return to Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary a new shirt and tie combination came with him. The tie was identified almost immediately, but five years later the shirt continues to elude identification despite its distinctive features. Unlike the many subtly different light blue shirts he used over the years before, this one featured a darker blue patterned contrasting material on the inside of the collar and cuffs as well as a vertical white button strip. Featured in this article are my observations on the original shirt and my review on an iTailor replica I recently acquired.

The screen used shirt.

In terms of the nitty-gritty details there are a few aspects to this shirt one should look for in a replica. In terms of design the collar is reasonably wide spread and the shirt lacks any button placket. Any other design features such as what the back looks like or the presence of a pocket are unknown. I'd hazard a guess that there is no pocket on the original shirt though, the design seems more in line with a modern stylish dress shirt than a business shirt. The actual patterned inner collar/cuff design is difficult to make out to a high degree of accuracy. It often gets described as polka dot but in reality it is made up of multiple different geometric shapes. Individual shades are difficult to say precisely as the lighting affects them noticeably, however the blue cotton seems to be darker than some of Tennant's more pale blue shirts such as the linen UniQlo. The patterned inner fabric is more of a medium or so blue overall and is more difficult to pinpoint than the outer fabric.

Ten with the Zygon detector.

Given the original shirt has never been identified and many of its features remain ambiguous this affords us a little creative licence in creating a replica. With this in mind I decided to go to iTailor to commission my shirt. I've been asked multiple followers/subscribers about iTailor and if it is safe to use, my answer is always "absolutely". Unlike many oriental tailoring sites they do not sacrifice customer service in order to be able to produce products at such reasonable prices, the only time I ever had a problem with one of my orders it was sorted entirely without issue. The quality of their items are as good as any respectable high street brand and they are open to making small customisations beyond the scope of their 3D designer providing they are not too radical and you ask nicely beforehand. Just to note, I know what I wrote sounds like and advert but I don't get any kind of discount for singing their praises here, I just genuinely like using them.

A rare glimpse of the white button strip.

Although iTailor's 3D designer is excellent there are a couple of special requests that I highly recommend. Firstly, their body measurements they ask for at the end of the design process don't always produce a shirt that fits how you want. When I first ordered using this method the arms came out incredibly skinny. Although they don't advertise it, they will use also garment measurements from a pre-existing well fitting shirt. I cannot recommend this enough, email them before an order to ask for their shirt garment measurement guide. After placing an order you can email them with these garment measurements and ask them to ignore the body measurements that were inputted into the designer. Secondly, their designer only allows one contrast fabric at once, making the white strip below the buttons impossible to do in addition the the inner collar and cuffs. Email them afterwards with a picture of what you want done though and they'll be happy to accommodate this small request.

iTailor's shirts now also come with an eight inch matching pocket square.

Below are the options I selected when I created my own iTailor shirt:

Feature	Options
1 – Fabric	Sky blue
2 – Collar	Italian collar (1 button), collar width 3.00 inches (standard)
3 – Sleeve	Long sleeve
4 – Front	Single placket
5 – Cuffs	Angled cuff (1 button), cuff width 2.75 inches (standard)
6 – Bottom	Tri-tab
7 – Back Detail	None
8 – Pockets	None
9 – Buttons	White buttons, light blue thread
10 – Contrast	Printed blue contrast, inner collar and cuffs
11 – Monogram	No monogram

After this I emailed them with my desired garment measurements and with the special request to add the white contrasting strip beneath the buttons.

This would be a good picture to email to them, illustrating the request.

All things considered, I'm very happy with the shirt. The sky blue fabric was on sale so the total price after shipping was only £27 which is very little considering it is completely custom and tailored to one's body. The only nitpicking observations I have are that although the inner patterned fabric is a good match to the original it is perhaps a little darker (the photo of my shirt folded up gives the most accurate colour read of the fabric). The contrast fabrics section is not as comprehensive as the main shirting fabric options but I'm sure if you found and asked for a specific better fabric they have in stock they'd make the inner contrasting parts using it. If you want to make your shirt with a pocket or back details go ahead as these parts were never seen on camera. It is difficult to say how accurate the sky blue colour is as Tennant's shirt colour can change a lot between photos (for example, compare the difference in colour between the photos of David in this post). It is however, the best match that can be done without the original in-hand for comparison, being darker than the pale blue UniQlo whilst still remaining light blue overall.

The iTailor shirt cuff (top) against the pale blue Uniqlo (bottom).

Magnoli Clothiers do replicas of this shirt for $135, each of their shirts is built to the individual's specification. It is important to note that although I'm sure a better replica of the inner fabric could be drawn up and fabric printed by them it would still not be a perfect replica. Also consider that iTailor costs only a quarter of the price asked by Magnoli.

The iTailor shirt paired with the screen accurate tie.

If anyone's thinking of getting an iTailor shirt for their own 50th outfit I highly recommend it. Having a shirt with a contrasting inner collar and cuffs really elevates one's outfit above the effect given from a simple, off-the-shelf, light blue shirt.

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.

Tennant Shirt Index

There has been much discussion in the community over the years regarding the various ties worn by the Tenth Doctor over his tenure, far less has been said about the plethora of shirts used. This is likely due to the fact that many of them look very similar, with only the collar area being readily visible, meaning identifying them conclusively is rather tricky.

Although there are several light blue cotton shirts that were worn on screen over the years there is very little in the way of differences between them. Often one has to look for specific details such as the collar spread, cuff style, placket presence, etc. to distinguish them. As a result of this I have grouped all of these generic shirts into one entry on the table. If you're looking to do an episode specific cosplay my advice is to re-watch the episode and check the details mentioned to get the most accurate shirt possible. At least one of these shirts was from UNIQLO but I don't know which one or how accurate their current lineup of cotton shirts are.

Examples of various common cuff styles.

The table below is a summary of Tennant's shirts, I have done my best to make it as accurate as possible. For simplicity, specifics such as exact colour shades and fabrics have been put into broad groups such as 'dark blue' and 'cotton' rather than for example 'greyish navy' and 'cotton polyester blend'. Non-standard shirts not worn with the classic costume such as the dinner and 1913 shirts have been excluded as well. Wherever there is uncertainty has been made clear, though educated guesses (such as the general absence of pockets on dress shirts) have been put forward. A single featured episode has been given for each shirt although most appeared in multiple episodes. Beneath the table can be found some additional observations.

Colour	Episode	Brand	Fabric	Buttons	Placket	Cuffs	Pocket	Additional
Light blue	Various	Various	Cotton	White (usually)	Varies	Varies	Usually
	The Day of the Doctor	Unknown	Cotton	White	No	1 button angle	Probably not	Contasting inner collar/cuff detail
	Smith and Jones	Unknown	Linen mix (probably)	White	Yes	1 button square	Unknown
	New Earth	UNIQLO	Linen mix	White	No	1 button round	Yes
Dark blue	The Girl in the Fireplace	Unknown	Cotton	White	No	1 button round	Yes
	Tooth and Claw	French Connection (FCUK)	Cotton	Dark blue	Yes	2 button angle	Yes	Topstitching and angled pocket
	Fires of Pompeii	Unknown	Cotton	Black or dark blue	Yes	1 button angle	No
	Partners in Crime	John Lewis (HIJKLM UVWXYZ)	Cotton	White	Yes	2 button, unknown	No
	Planet of the Dead	Unknown	Cotton	Dark blue	No	1 button square	Probably not
	Midnight	Unknown	Cotton	Black or dark blue	No	1 button square	Probably not	Covered buttons
Tan	The Impossible Planet	Unknown	Cotton	White	No	2 button angle	Unknown
	Rise of the Cybermen	UNIQLO (possibly)	Linen	White	Yes	1 button round (possibly)	Yes (possibly)
Grey	School Reunion	UNIQLO	Linen	White	No	1 button round	Yes
Dark red	Silence in the Library	Reiss	Cotton	Dark grey	No	1 button round	No	Twin buttoning collar
	42	H&M	Cotton	Dark grey	No	2 button angle	No	Pinstripe pattern

UNIQLO:

The linen shirts are still sold as part of UNIQLO's summer season, though their exact colours often change meaning certain shades such as the proper grey are no longer available. In terms of design differences, newer shirts have slightly different pockets (or none at all) and slightly thinner rimmed buttons.

Notably, the screen worn pale blue shirt sold at Bonham's was described as a linen mix. UNIQLO do sell linen blend shirts from time to time alongside their pure linen ones that are basically identical in appearance so it's likely Tennant's was actually a linen cotton blend rather than the more common pure linen ones.

The tan coloured linen shirt used in Series 2 looks identical to the UNIQLO's beige linen shirt save for one detail, the screen worn one has a placket. Given the variance in UNIQLO's shirts it's possible it was from there though I'm yet to see any shirt that matches it completely.

Reiss:

Although the very dark red Reiss is the most well known one there is at least one other that was used by Tennant. A screen worn Reiss dark blue shirt with dark blue buttons was sold at auction alongside the John Lewis but given several shirts in the table fit this description it's difficult to say which it was.

H&M:

There is a navy blue 'easy iron' shirt that many people own and claim is screen accurate however I can find no evidence to support this. It is frequently confused for the John Lewis shirt or the Fireplace/Utopia one but screencaps and auction photos show clear differences in the cuffs, placket, etc. In addition, the stitching on the H&M's collar is significantly closer to the edge than any of Ten's shirts, save for the light blue 'Smith and Jones' one. I suspect Chinese whispers transformed 'more accurate' to 'screen accurate' over time, as the first few people I saw buy it simply described it as being more accurate, as in an upgrade to what the previously had. When in doubt it is always better to find a primary source as secondary sources are very susceptible to this issue.