Test Lab

Ledbury

If you haven't heard of Southern shirtmaker Ledbury yet, here's a quick intro: Two southern gents, Paul Trible and Paul Watson, met overseas while attending business school at Oxford. Since it wasn't the best time to enter the finance field, the two hatched a plan (over a few pints at a pub on London's Ledbury Street) to focus on their mutual love of tailoring. After a year of apprenticing with an old school tailor on the city's famed Jermyn Street, they came back to the States and launched Ledbury this past winter. We kicked the tires on one of the styles from their new summer collection—a light blue slim-fit number with a button down collar. Cut from soft Italian cotton poplin, it's an ideal warm weather alternative to the thicker oxford cloths that have been in heavy wardrobe rotation for the past six months. The fit is dead on. Trim in the body but not constricting in the shoulders, with a length that stays comfortably tucked. We particularly appreciated their "Anglo American" collar which is one part British cut-away, one part standard point collar and is fused in a way to keep it from collapsing under a jacket.

• Ledbury operates out of a refurbished tobacco warehouse in Richmond, VA.