This question came in a couple of months ago from a reader who was visiting a Ritz Carlton in Florida with her husband and they had forgotten to pack his undershirts.
So, they did what any practical person would do — they visited the apparel shop that was in the lobby of the hotel.
Well, they were so impressed with the undershirts, they wanted to buy more but could not find them.
So, they contacted me.
Here’s the email exchange:
Email #1
Hi TUG!
ADVERTISEMENT My husband and I stayed at a Ritz Carlton for a wedding recently.
Because we forgot to pack his undershirts we had to visit the apparel shop in the lobby. It was a higher end type place as you might expect — and the t-shirts we purchased fit the bill — both in terms of price and quality.
The tags read Hawkchurch and Tyne; they are white round-color undershirts and feel like fine-apparel.
They amazed us both so much we started to look online to buy more. Unfortunately we can’t locate them anywhere.
Do you know anything about them? Or would you recommend alternative fine-apparel similar?
Thanks!
Email #2 (responding to a couple questions I had about location of the hotel and fabric content of the undershirt)
Hi, sorry for the long delay — busy, busy! :)
The tags read “Hawkchurch and Tyne”; they are white round-color undershirts and feel like fine-apparel. There is no other info on the label other than Made in Hong Kong and washing in warm water.
The Ritz was in Naples, FL (they have two — not the golf course one). It was expensive, say over $25 for one.
Again, thanks for the help!
Well, after a little digging, I was successful in finding the company that manufactures these undershirts.
I contacted the headquarters, and heard back from one of the head people there who manages the Hawkchurch & Tyne brand label!
Hawkchurch & Tyne Undershirts Found!
Here’s what I found out and sent back to the reader:
Hi D,
So I did some research and found that label is a subsidiary of Threadtex, inc. out of New York.
They have several different fabric/apparel brands including Hawkchurch & Tyne, Silex, TTX, and Zephirlene.
I was able to track down a main contact at Threadtex h.q. and learned that the Hawkchurch & Tyne undershirts are made from a high-end, uber soft Giza cotton from Egypt.
It’s supposed to be the softest kind of cotton available, more comfortable than Sea Island cotton, and is available exclusively in their H & T branded undershirts.
No wonder you’re trying to track down these undershirts — they sound amazing!
While the manufacturer does not sell direct, I have some good news for you!
Ordering Hawkchurch & Tyne Undershirts
If you’re interested in special ordering the H & T undershirts (retailing for around $37.50 each), the manufacturer said that you should be able to order some of those undershirts by contacting the John Craig Stores headquarters in Winterpark, FL.
If you go to their contact page, you’ll find a list of email addresses and telephone numbers that you can use to reach them. It’s their store you went to at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida.
Also, the person I spoke to at Threadtex is sending me a sample to try out as well, so I’ll be able to review it and share information about it on the site and tell the whole world about these (what seem to be amazing) undershirts!
I’m going to turn this email exchange into an article for the site. Hopefully I’ll can track down a picture of the shirt for the article. If not, I’ll take one when I get the sample from Threadtex.
Keep me posted and let me know if you’re able to order the undershirts from john craig. glad I was able to find you the answer!
best,
tug
Sample Received
So, the nice folks over at Threadtex were kind enough to send me a medium v-neck undershirt to try out and let me tell you, the egyptian giza cotton feels oooh so very nice on the skin and the cut and fit is very nice for a box cut undershirt.
In addition, I have not seen this very often, but this fine men’s undershirt has raglan sleeves in place of traditional sleeves. Also, the whole undershirt is flat-seam stitched, which is nice added touch.
Not that they are any better or worse than regular sleeves, but just worth mentioning.
H&T offers crew neck (HT-2230) and v-neck (HT-2231) style undershirts as well as various style of underwear made from the same soft giza cotton.
I’ll be doing an undershirt review on this guy sometime soon.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a very nice, very soft, regular fitting (not form fitting) undershirt, and $37.50 per undershirt is not out of your budget, you should definitely contact John Craig Stores and order yourself some of the Hawkchurch & Tyne fine men’s undershirts.
10/2013 Update
Read through the comment section below ↓
Wanted to check and see if hawkchurch & tyne is still available anywhere or actually discontinued by Threaded.
heya darren. hawkchurch & tyne undershirts have been discontinued — actually for a while now.
they were made with pima cotton, so you might want to focus your search on undershirts made with pima or supima cotton (american grown).
let me know what you decide on and what you think of it!
Thanks for the quick response. Too bad because well worth the price. Any recommendation of same quality with raglan sleeves?
well, let’s see — the hawkchurch & tyne undershirt was originally $37.50 per undershirt. once you get into that type of per undershirt budget, you really won’t find any undershirt of sub-par “quality”.
off the top of my head, the undershirts that have raglan sleeves are:
1. many of the shapewear undershirts — not what you’re looking for
2. mr. davis undershirts – viscose bamboo / spandex. $24 each, $18 per if you sign up for their vip subscription service.
3. mack weldon undershirts – 95/5 cotton/spandex. not quite raglan sleeve, but designed with more ergonomically-placed seamlines. $28 each. they also have a pima cotton t-shirt ($32), but those are designed with a more typical t-shirt pattern/design.
4. shirtless undershirts – 100% pima cotton. $22 each.
out of the 3 real options above, none of them will be similar to hawkchurch, mostly because they are either fitted or more lightweight.
that said, shirtless undershirts are the closest because they are 1) made of pima cotton, 2) not fitted, 3) made with raglan sleeves. keep in mind a shirtless undershirt will be a lot lighter than the hawkchurch undershirt.
for what it’s worth, and i hope it helps, but this is the information i sent jeff (the guy who originally wrote in with the question) back in june who was still in search of an undershirt similar to hawkchurch and tyne:
Hi Tug, I’m the “husband” referenced in your post regarding my wife’s email. Just wanted to say thanks … Because of your help I’ve been able to purchase these shirts now a few times from a local John Craig.
Unfortunately, as I write this in my car outside leaving the store, apparently there is a supply shortage and concern that there may be some financial issues (going out of business) which means I’m lost again! :-(
Looks like I may have to see what other options I have. Have any replacement suggestions?
hey jeff! great to hear from you! glad i was able to find the answer for you guys.
for your reference, supima cotton and egyptian cotton is about the same – in fact, not all egyptian cotton undershirts are made with the long staple cotton people come to expect from egyptian cotton, so some supima cotton (or pima cotton) undershirts may feel better on the skin. i know that nordstrom makes a supima cotton undershirt (also worn by mark harmon in ncis), but i don’t know how it compares yet. there is also a nice light-weight cellular supima undershirt available from sunspel.
let me take a look at my inventory and see if i can find anything else that may be similar in fit and feel to the hawkchurch & tine.
one other thing, if you haven’t signed up to my mailing list and downloaded my undershirt resource workbook, you might want to. it has measurements and fabric content for about 135 different undershirts, so you might find something there too.
Did you ever find a v-neck undershirt in your inventory that compared well with the hawkchurch and tyne? My 95 year young Dad has some and its been impossible to replace them. I called the John craig store and they had none left and think the company is closed.
thank you in advance for any leads.