Wholesale Shirts from Turkey

Shirting is sold by yarn count — the 40s, 60s, 80s and 120s you see quoted — and the number is a measure of fineness, not directly of quality. A higher count means a finer yarn, which produces a lighter, smoother, more lustrous cloth. It also produces a more delicate one, and a 120s shirt worn daily will not outlast an 80s.

Ply matters at least as much and is quoted less often. Two-ply cloth twists two yarns together before weaving, giving a stronger, smoother and more stable fabric than single-ply at the same count. A two-ply 80s is a genuinely better shirt than a single-ply 100s, and it is usually cheaper. When you compare two quotes, ask for count and ply together — a quote that names only the count is telling you half the story.

Then there is finishing. Mercerised cotton has been treated to increase lustre and dye uptake, which is why some shirts hold colour visibly better. Easy-care and non-iron finishes are chemical treatments that reduce creasing at some cost to hand and breathability; whether that trade is right depends entirely on who is buying the shirt.

If you learn to check one thing on a shirt sample, make it the collar. Interlining — the stiffening layer inside the collar and cuff — is where cost is cut most often and where the customer notices first, usually after three washes when the collar starts to bubble.

Fusible interlining is glued under heat and is the industry standard; done properly with the right grade and a correctly calibrated press it lasts the life of the shirt. Done badly it delaminates, and the collar develops the rippled surface that no ironing corrects. Sewn-in interlining is the traditional alternative, softer and more durable, and correspondingly more expensive. Ask which is used, and on the fit sample flex the collar hard and look along its edge in raking light.

Stitch density is the other tell. Higher stitches per inch means a stronger, neater seam and a slower, more expensive make. Count them on the sample's side seam and armhole. Then check the small things that separate a considered shirt from an assembled one: whether stripes match across the front placket and at the yoke, whether the pattern runs true on the pocket, and whether the buttons are cross-stitched or bar-tacked.

Cotton shirting shrinks, and the size a customer receives is not the size they own after the first wash unless someone planned for it. This is the most common quality complaint in the category and it is entirely preventable at the specification stage.

Ask whether the cloth is pre-shrunk — sanforised — and ask for the residual shrinkage figure the mill guarantees. Then decide who absorbs it. Either the pattern is cut with a shrinkage allowance so the garment lands on your stated measurements after washing, or the garment is cut to measurement and shrinks below it. Both approaches exist in the market. Only one of them matches what your size label promises, and the factory will do whichever you specify — so specify.

Sizing convention is a separate decision. Formal shirts are traditionally sold by neck size, sometimes with a sleeve length; casual ranges use S–XXL. Neck sizing gives a better fit and doubles your SKU count. Pick one per range and state it clearly on the size chart you send, because a factory working from an ambiguous chart will guess.

As with every woven category, the minimum is set by the cloth rather than by the sewing floor. Weaving and dyeing a shirting run is a substantial commitment, so a factory quoting a low minimum is almost always quoting on fabric someone already holds.

The practical route into a first order is therefore to work from stock cloth. White and light blue poplin, white and blue oxford, and a small set of standard twills are held by most Turkish shirt makers as a matter of course. Building a first range from those shades costs you a little distinctiveness and saves you a large minimum. Custom weaving or a bespoke colour is a genuine option once a style proves itself — it simply is not a sensible first move.

Sampling is priced separately and deserves budget. A shirt typically needs two rounds: one to check the block and one to confirm corrections. Expect to pay for both. If a supplier offers unlimited free sampling, the cost is in the unit price, which is a legitimate model but makes comparing two quotes harder than it appears.

Shirting is broad enough that a supplier's answer changes completely depending on which sub-category you mean, and a request that says only "shirts" gets a vague quote. Being specific in the first message is the cheapest speed-up available.

The site groups the most-requested styles so you can look at real products before you write the brief. Each of these represents a different cloth, a different season and often a different factory: a linen shirt programme and a flannel programme rarely come from the same building.

A shirt sample can be assessed properly in about ten minutes, and doing it methodically catches nearly everything that would otherwise appear at scale.

Start with the collar: flex it, look along the edge in raking light for bubbling, check the points are symmetrical and lie flat. Move to the placket and check it is straight, then to the yoke and check the stripes or checks meet. Run the buttons through the holes — every one — and look at whether the buttonholes are cleanly cut and secured. Check the side seams for pucker, which usually means thread tension rather than a bad operator. Finally measure the garment against your chart at every point you specified, and wash one sample at the care instruction you intend to print, then measure it again.

That last step is the one people skip and the one that matters most. The difference between the measurements before and after wash is the number your customer will experience, and finding it on one sample is enormously cheaper than finding it on a thousand shirts.