Hucklebury Shirts - In-Person Review

About two weeks ago we featured a brand spotlight on Hucklebury, an up-and-coming men's shirting company with a current campaign on Kickstarter. Parag followed up with me and sent me a shirt to see and test for an in-person review, and the results are in! Check out the brand background over here, and get the lowdown on the shirts below:

Quality of Construction:

The main thing to stress here is the fantastic quality. First of all, the 100% Egyptian Cotton fabric is comfortable as hell and drapes wonderfully when wearing. The collar is a workhorse, and will definitely never flop, with a tie or undone for some drinks after work. Personally, I prefer a bit softer of a collar, but I know menswear aficionados all over the net clamor for stiffer, heartier collars, and they won't be disappointed here.




Other small details continue to point to the high quality of construction. The pattern matching down the sides of the shirt is pretty damn perfect, the mother-of-pearl buttons are a classy touch (and more durable than cheap plastic alternatives), and the single-needle stitching, especially on the placket, offers a sleeker, more streamlined look than standard double-needle work.

Contrast stitching on bottom 

There are just a few areas I found slightly lacking. At this price point, I would hope for a split yoke along the shoulders, but it's definitely not a deal-breaker (for the record, a split yoke allows for greater freedom of movement in a shirt, but is much harder to construct as it not only adds an extra seam, but also an entire new dimension of pattern-matching). Additionally, the stitching on the contrasting bottom button-hole seemed a little rough, and it would have been nice to have gussets at the side seams for extra durability, but the 365 day guarantee (which is such an awesome promise, and worth mentioning again) pretty solidly negates the need.

Fit:

As fantastic as the construction of the shirt is, I have to admit I'm not entirely blown away by the fit. From my understanding, the shirts are still in pre-production, so Parag didn't have a ton of sizes sitting around to send me. Therefore, I had to settle for a trial shirt a bit off of my sizing, and went with a 15' neck, rather than my usual 14.5'. Knowing this, I reasonably expected the whole shirt to run a bit big and definitely took this into consideration during the review. Take a look at the pictures:

Honestly, everything is so close. I do love that the shirt comes already darted...a lot of shirt-makers refrain from doing this as it adds yet another seam that, if not made entirely straight, throws off the pattern on the back of the shirt.

Can you pick out the darting seems at the sides of the pictures? Subtly well done.

Hucklebury does a great job here, and the darts definitely add a taper to the shirt that most off the rack shirts do not have. For a size too big, this shirt fits way better along the waist than I would have expected...

Fit at the waist (front).

Fit at the waist (side).

...and that's gotta be due to those darts. Nice touch, Hucklebury!

Also, take a look at the armholes, and the mobility around the shoulders.

Once again, for a shirt admittedly a size large, the armholes are very reasonably high and fitted, and there's no unseemly bunching or movement of the rest of the shirt when I raise my arms.

Really, my hesitation when it comes to fit results largely from the fact that, while those areas mentioned above are close enough that a size down would more than likely alleviate any concerns, I'm not sure I'd be able to make that switch. The collar and the shoulder seams on this size are a pretty exact fit for my body, and I'd worry that sizing down would make those areas too small. At the same time, a few other areas, such as the sleeves and looseness at the upper chest make this size too large for me to wear. I'll have to give the 14.5' neck a try to see if I can make it work, because damn, I want to make these work!

Another shot of the fit (keeping in mind this is a size too large):
Close to perfect in the waist.
Great fit at neck and shoulders.
A bit too roomy in the sleeves and chest.

The Bottom Line:

Undoubtedly, Hucklebury offers an incredible deal when it comes to quality for the price. The construction and fabric alone are enough to make these shirts worth buying at $78. As for the fit, the darting and resulting taper in the body are there, as are the higher armholes. If you're a super-skinny guy like me, you may still need some tailoring or alterations to get the perfect fit, but someone with a bit more meat on their bones will more than likely be very pleased with the dimensions. If the fit works for you, this is a helluva buy. If you want to get in on the introductory pricing and support their kickstarter, head over here to for more information regarding contribution options.