German precision shirts: A factory visit to shirtmakers Campe & Ohff in Lauterbach – Made in Germany

It must have been almost 10 years ago that I ordered my first ever made to measure shirt. Funny enough I had jackets and suits made to measure and even bespoke made in that time but a shirt I never took so far. I guess my thought was that I anyway never take off my jacket so nobody would see if my shirt was not fitting well. How mistaken could I be!

I remember getting in touch with one of the owners Henrik Ohff by e-mail thanks to another friend who introduced me to him. After exchanging some mail traffic I decided I’d love to meet them and see what they offer since they would be on an event not too far from where I live. The event was in a small town just under Cologne and I remember meeting Henrik Ohff and even Christian von Campe there for the first time. Henrik convinced me quickly to try my first made to measure shirt with them. So after 10 minutes I got measured and was standing in front of their enormous fabric selection. A blue oxford fabric was the choice and I went home full of excitement.

The funny coincidence was that I had to be in Hamburg a couple of months after that. So I could pick it up in one of the two shops that Campe & Ohff runs. I went to the shop in Hamburg which in managed by Henrik Ohff and I remember putting on the shirt and falling in love with the world of made to measure and bespoke shirts. I saw the difference it made to me and felt that off the rack would never be an option again for me. So it continued and despite I tried over 20 shirt makers in this 10 years I at least place one order every year with Campe & Ohff since they never let me down once.

This never letting me down is something that really made me more curious every year. How are they doing that? Why are they making so little mistakes? Like I mentioned I tried over 20 shirt makers and even various shirts but some of them made a mistake in the first place or started making mistakes after a couple of shirts. Nothing too bad about that. It’s craftsmen work after all and I think as a customers of made to measure or bespoke services you also need to have the strength in you to forgive occasional mistakes. The craft of making such a garment is not easy anyway. They need to be good craftsmen but we need to be good customers is my opinion.

But my curiosity to the performance of Campe & Ohff brought me to the German textile town of Lauterbach. A small town one hour above Frankfurt am Main where their factory is based since Campe & Ohff is still producing in their native country Germany. And despite most people might not immediately think of Germany when it comes to luxury clothing, made to measure and bespoke garments. However one should not underestimate that! Germany knows a lot of good tailors, shirt makers, shoemakers and tiemakers which are on the same level like the famous Italian, French and British manufacturers and craftsmen.

Arriving in Lauterbach makes you realise immediately that this was once a blooming textile town. It has a river with crystal clear water and a strong flow which usually is the ideal place to build textile mills around. In Lauterbach there used to be quite some mills and therefor also garment manufacturers who use the fabric that is woven in the mills. Not much is left except of the hat factory Wegener and the shirt makers Campe & Ohff whose factory is called the ‘’Lauterbacher Hemdenmanufaktur’’. Only in a neighbour town one can find a linen mill, mainly for interior fabrics though.

Campe & Ohff started in 1996 by Christian von Campe, Henrik Ohff and another business partner in the time that they were still studying in Berlin. The first order was taken by Christian von Campe over the telephone on his bicycle on the Kurfurstendamm, not knowing that more than 20 years later they would have a shop in a side street of Berlin’s ‘’Grand Boulevard’’. In the beginning they produced in a company in South-West Germany but they realised quickly that they could not keep up with their standards and amounts. Therefor they decided to look further and they ended up in Poland. However also this didn’t bring them satisfaction and something unusual happened. Somebody reached out to them with the news that there was a shirt factory in the town of Lauterbach for sale. It was owned by an old man and didn’t work already for a couple of weeks when they came there to visit it. But since they saw there a solution to keep up with the quality and delivery standards they were ambitious to have, they decided to go for it. All the former workers of the factory were most happy to start working again and the old man who was first owning it was happy to help with the start up. It took only two weeks to get the factory up and running in the way Campe & Ohff would love to see it.

For me it was an early Wednesday morning when I arrived at the factory where Christian von Campe was greeting me already through the window from behind his desk. He kindly opened the door and I was taken to the small factory shop where we had a good conversation. We continued to the actual factory and I was taken through a door which brought me into the one room factory where a fair amount of seamstresses were working hard on the made to measure shirts. The factory is not the biggest I have ever seen, however it must have been one of the most organised ones I have ever seen. Already at the first glimpse it was reminding me of the many watch manufacturers I’ve visited in Switzerland and Germany.

To start with the first thing I saw them having in common. It was clean! Since Campe & Ohff their shirts are made to measure and partially machine made, I was first taken to the computer where the patterns are created. So the measurements which they put into the system are transformed into pattern parts which arrive on the computer in the factory. The lady who is responsible for this computer gets the difficult task now to puzzle all the parts as efficient as possible into the fabric which will be on the cutting table shortly afterwards. This way there’s never too much of the precious material wasted which makes sure the customer can get a fair price for his made to measure shirt.

Once this is done and the finished pattern puzzle will go the cutting machine the fabric is carefully putted under it on the cutting table and the robot does it’s work to cut perfect pieces which can be sewn together into a shirt. Since Campe & Ohff their factory really only produces made to measure shirts there are never more then 5 fabrics at the same time under the cutting machine. It barely happens that orders are bigger and since every pattern is individual, the machine can only cut for one person at the same time. If you order different collars and cuffs on all your made to measure shirts the ladies in the factory will cut them by hand. It’s more sensible then putting 5 times a different fabric on the cutting table. All with all one can see in this stage already that making a made to measure shirt is so much more complicated and more labour intensive then making off the rack shirts.

Once the fabric is cut the second common factor with a watch manufacturer comes in for me. On the table is a variety of components and each of them needs it’s own treatment. The collars and the cuffs need an interlining which is out of a treated cotton. This makes them nice, stiff and stay in shape. Each collar and cuff needs it’s own interlining and this is perfectly numbered and organised in a shelf. So there’s the third common factor with a watch manufacturer since all components are well organised in shelfs. With very hot steam the interlinings are glued into the collars and cuffs before they are sewn closed by one of the seamstresses. The same happens with the plaquettes  on the front of shirt which makes the part where you button up your shirt durable and lasting for many years to come.

The parts are ready for assembling now and the seamstresses in the factory do this with great care. Since there is always yarn used that matches the fabric, there are days that they sew with white yarn, pink yarn, blue yarn and so on. This to not mix up colours and make sure the yarn is nice and matching. It can therefore be that when you order a white shirt, a blue shirt and a pink shirt that all three of them will be finished at different times. Shirts with white yarn will however always be ready first since white yarn days are most common. But as I mentioned earlier I think that for a good made to measure or bespoke product we need a good craftsman and we need to be good customers. It’s a process that we make together after all.

Sewing on the buttons on a shirt is another part that is an interesting one. So for the plastic buttons there is a machine who does it quickly, solid and beautifully. However mother of pearl buttons which is 50% of the orders nowadays need a different treatment. For that the seamstresses are still doing it manually so the buttons stay in the best condition.

After the whole shirt is assembled with precision, like one can see in the watch manufacturers of Switzerland and Glashütte, one of the seamstresses will take care of ironing the shirt nicely and folding it accurately. It will be shipped out to your home, the shop in Hamburg, the shop in Berlin or you can pick it up in the factory as well as during one of the 20 trunk shows they do every year in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The best will be to wash the shirt first before you wear it as it always shrinks a bit and also for washing there are some instructions that you better be sticking to. You always was your shirt on 30 degrees Celsius, never ever put it in the tumble to dry it and iron it preferably slightly wet. The made to measure shirts of Campe & Ohff are made out of the highest quality fabrics from ALUMO and Thomas Mason so they need the best care possible. But then again, of your mechanical Swiss or German watch you have to take good care as well.

I myself couldn’t resist ordering a shirt again and went for an oxford button down in light pink. The fabric is from Thomas Mason.

If you would like to try the made to measure shirts from Campe & Ohff you can visit their shop in Hamburg or Berlin, visit their factory shop in Lauterbach or visit one of their 20 trunk shows in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. More information you can find of course on their website: https://www.campe-ohff.de/