Ordering Custom Clothing in Europe — Delivery, Duty and Sizing

Ordering custom clothing inside Europe is mostly simpler than ordering into it. The three things that decide your experience are where it is printed, which customs border it crosses, and whose size labels the shop is using.

Where it is printed decides almost everything

A made-to-order garment is produced after you buy it, at whichever facility is nearest your address. For a European delivery that should mean a European facility.

It matters more than it sounds. An order printed in Europe and shipped within the EU crosses no customs border, arrives in days rather than weeks, and carries no import bill. The same shirt printed in the United States and flown over can add a week and a duty charge that arrives after the parcel.

So the question worth asking any supplier is simply: where will mine be produced? If the answer is a single warehouse on another continent, price the customs in.

What customs actually applies

Within the EU — Italy to Germany, Ireland to Portugal — there is free movement of goods. No duty, no import VAT at the border, no handling fee. VAT is already in the price you were shown.

EU to the UK, and the UK to the EU — since 2021 this is a customs border. Orders above the relevant threshold attract import VAT and possibly duty, plus a carrier handling fee that is often the most annoying part. A shop that prints locally on both sides sidesteps it entirely.

Switzerland and Norway — outside the EU customs union. Import VAT applies from a low threshold.

Into the EU from outside — import VAT applies from the first euro; the old small-consignment relief is gone.

The practical test: a European shop quoting in euro, printing in Europe, should deliver with nothing more to pay on arrival. If an order like that produces a customs bill, something in the supply chain was not what you were told.

Italian orders specifically

Italy is inside the EU customs union and inside the euro, so an EU-produced order arrives with no duty and no currency conversion on a euro price.

Two local details worth knowing. Italian domestic delivery is quick — usually two to four working days from dispatch — but August is genuinely slow, and the fortnight around Ferragosto affects both production and carriers. And for business orders, if you need a *fattura* with your VAT number on it, ask before you pay rather than after; retrofitting an invoice is harder than issuing one.

Whose sizes are you reading?

This is where European orders quietly go wrong, because the garment and the shop are often from different sizing cultures.

Much custom clothing in Europe is printed on American blanks — Bella+Canvas, Gildan, Next Level — which are cut to US sizing. A shop in Milan may list "M" while the garment is a US Medium, which runs broader and shorter than a European Medium.

The way through is to ignore the letter entirely:

1. Find out which blank it is. The manufacturer and model.
2. Get its flat measurements in centimetres.
3. Compare against a shirt you already own, measured the same way.

Sizing across borders works through EU, UK, US and Nigerian labels and why they disagree.

Timing a European order

`` production 2–5 working days (made to order, starts after payment) delivery 2–5 working days (within Europe, from a European facility) ``

Roughly one to two weeks door to door, and the two numbers are separate — a shop quoting only "5–7 days" is usually quoting the second and hoping you read it as both.

For anything with a date attached — an event, a team, a gift — add a week of slack. Nothing about made-to-order clothing rewards cutting it fine.

Returns under EU law

Distance selling in the EU carries a 14-day right of withdrawal, and it is a legal right rather than a shop's policy.

The exception that matters here: goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised are excluded. A custom print with your own artwork is genuinely outside the right. A standard design from a shop's own catalogue, printed after you ordered it, generally is not — the shop chose the design, not you.

Any shop worth using replaces a faulty or misprinted item regardless, and says so plainly. That is a much better signal than the length of the returns window.

We produce at the facility closest to the delivery address, quote Italian and European orders in euro, and publish each garment's own size chart. Bulk and custom orders covers larger runs.