If you follow us on Facebook, you know that we tried to hold a launch party once before. Actually twice. Both times came the Snowmageddon. And while we’re safe from a snowstorm in this stifling heat, we are careful to chance our luck with EARTHQUAKES by planning the launch a third time.
But we are fearless! And it is here! FOR SHIRTS & GIGGLES
Impervious to wimpy-limpy, no matter how many whiskeys you’ve had.
This past Saturday we were at our offices knocking out some work before the USA/Ghana World Cup game, when we received a call from Stuart, one of our winners of the Raffle Doodle Dandy, also known as bike valet ticket #312. He is one more H&C customer that we are fortunate to have – an advocate for education policy and an all-around good guy.
I am happy to announce that Hugh & Crye has partnered with Earth Aid (www.earthaid.net), a Washington, DC based company that rewards consumers when they reduce their energy footprint.
The best way I can sum up Earth Aid is like this: it is the Mint of energy consumption. If you know about Mint, then you should be geeking out right about now. How it works, and my own personal consumption after the break!
As a small gesture of appreciation for your great support, we would like to invite you to a happy hour this Wednesday (June 30th). Clumped up in an office all day and going through the tossing and turning of start-up life, we want to get back to the basic human interaction aspect. We hope that you can make it out!
If you participated in last weekend’s ride, then you might recall seeing a little tag attached to your bicycle. That, friends, is your ticket to the Hugh & Crye Raffle Doodle Dandy. In other words, five cyclists from the Seersucker Social will receive a Hugh & Crye shirt of their choice!
Here’s how it works:
We are announcing 10 numbers – but the first FIVE to respond, will be the winners. All you have to do is post to our Facebook page, tweet us, or email us at service@hughandcrye.com
And, the winning numbers are….
#48, #122, #236, #98, #189, #312, #161, #276, #66, #323
Good luck!
Having missed the opportunity to participate in last fall’s Tweed Ride, we were sure to not miss the next event put on by our friend Eric Brewer – a leisurely bike ride followed by the lawn party of the year: The Seersucker Social.
Ernest, Philip and I rounded up a few of our favorites (special thanks to Tim, Ashish, Molly, Kevin, Priscila and Zack!) and joined the hundreds of Washingtonians in Meridian Hill Park. We set off on a short, scenic ride through Rock Creek Park, finally arriving at the beautiful Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens near Van Ness. Hugh & Crye was the official ‘bike valet’ of the event, greeting folks on their entrance, and tagging bikes for a raffle (winners to be announced on Wednesday – hold on to your tickets!)
Once on the grounds, guests were welcome to wonderfully mixed drinks, live music, games and good cheer. The event was one of a kind…but don’t take our word for it! (hehe… what’s that from?) Pictures below (taken by Zack Fellman!)
More love from the press! Capitol File featured us in their May/June issue – check it out!
Hugh & Crye covered in Fashion Washington, a seasonal print and online magazine from Washington Post Media. Shown are 33rd and M, Plum Adventure, and Carolina – all nearly sold out!
http://www.fashionwashington.com/lushlife2.html
We love Thrillist. Their witty, if not snarky, writing style. Their links to ridiculous images on the net (where do they find stuff like this??) And the fact that they reach “bros” like us all over the country. Check out their article on Hugh & Crye after the break!
On Thursday, March 25th, about 70 or so people came out to Social to join us for a little benefit party for Martha’s Outfitters (of Martha’s Table). Social’s AJ Guy, Scott Hammons and Gabriella Lenzi have been great to work with and very much share our values in community, partnership and giving back. If you haven’t been to Social yet, definitely check it out. Better yet, swing by our office (3307 M St.) and we’ll hook you up with a 20% discount card that can be used against your meal or bar tab.
Special thanks to Jim Darling for exhibiting his iphone portraits – an intriguing set of captures of perfect strangers from DC-metro. And to Monet for repp’ing Martha’s. AND Shomari, Phil and Whitney – thank you for all your help! One more… special thanks to Bisnow for the coverage! Pics below…
A customer testimonial from Decatur, Georgia. You’ll see why we chose video as the medium to capture this. Always animated and articulate, Shan shares why he likes Hugh & Crye shirts.
Thank you, Shan. And an extra special thanks to Sona for her wonderful entrance 
Our second donation drop to Martha’s this year went a little different. Our first visit consisted of simply dropping off customer donated shirts, what we call “uglies” (due to their sloppy fit.)
This time we actually volunteered, thanks to the suggestion of Monet (an employee at Martha’s Outfitters).
This past weekend my dear friends the Haimbachs hosted our first trunk show on the road.
In Fayetteville… Arkansas.
Like, closer to the Oklahoma and Missouri borders than to Little Rock.
Women tend to have more curves than men. In order for a garment to fit a woman well – to actually accommodate or accentuate those curves – it takes a little help from the sewing miracle that is the dart.
The positive feedback we’ve received on the construction and fabric quality of our shirts has been awesome, and it often leads customers to the question: “where are your shirts made?“ As you now know, and may have noticed on the size label on our shirts, they’re made in India.
For the curious, yes conditions can be pretty bad at some apparel factories in developing countries. In the case below – a factory I just happened to pass by – we didn’t need the vetting and certification of a third party – it was obvious! (The second picture is our factory.)
Our good friend and early supporter, Vincent, came by today to drop off his lot – five ill-fitting blue shirts. The man has class – knowing that our non-profit partner only accepts ‘clothing with dignity’ (no stains, in wearable condition), he had the shirts professionally laundered before bringing them in. And, he walked out with seven shirts! Vinny, since I don’t speak French: muchas gracias homey!
Pictures of Vincent’s uglies after the break…
And it’s a good one.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that launching a business is an endless series of challenges, and people telling you “no” along the way. In the last mile to our December launch, we had to modify our SSL certificate, a prerequisite for our development team to finish up the code and final testing. It was Friday afternoon, and the customer service rep at the SSL vendor said we would basically have to wait until Monday for our order to be processed since the technical support team would be leaving soon for the weekend. This meant that our developers would be idle all weekend, and our launch date would be further delayed.
As you probably guessed from the title of this post… we were not going to take no for an answer!
Two of our shirts – Brummell’s Preferred and Lakeview, have ‘link cuffs’. By design, we wanted cuffs that we could wear with cuff links, just not ‘French’ cuffs (aka double cuffs). To us, French cuffs are all form and no function. Can’t exactly roll up your sleeves when you’re wearing French cuffs. And sometimes they’re just a nuisance due to their baggy-ness under a tailored jacket or sweater.
Included with your purchase of either of our link cuff shirts, is a pair of silk knots of your choice: white, royal blue, two-tone violet/purple, and black/white barrels. We’ll be incorporating this into the checkout process in the future, but for the time being, make sure you let us know which one you’d like for us to send you with your shirt!
Live in the Washington DC metro area? Interested in getting 10% off your order, while helping those in need?
We’re excited to tell you about a promotion we’re running! We’ve partnered with an awesome DC based organization: Martha’s Table, to help in the clothing drive of buttoned, long-sleeve shirts for the clothing center of Martha’s Outfitters.
Here’s how it all works:
To ensure you get the best from your Hugh & Crye shirt, we’ve put together some care instructions – starting with fit, then cleaning and ironing, finally some tips.
FIT
First, ensure that the fit of the shirt is to your liking. Ultimately this is your decision alone, but you might find our brief guide helpful. If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact us - we’re happy to help. (Cont’d)
We believe the single most important piece of the dress shirt is the collar. Alan Flusser put it best “think of your face as portrait and your shirt collar as frame”. The collar provides structure, support and balance to your beautiful mug. The real nuance is in different types of collars.
The stand and height of a tall collar can offer a dramatic look – as does this one pictured, Brummell’s Preferred. A collar can also be the subtle reminder of a youthful spirit – as do the rounded ones in Blue Monday and Jean-Pierre Pan.
We tend to disagree with Flusser’s belief that collar choice should be chosen in relation to one’s facial bone structure. Hogwash. Choose any collar you like; wear what makes you feel good!
We have a love-hate relationship with starch. For the record, we don’t like medium to heavy starch at all. I’m primarily referring to the little bit of spray-crack that you might reach for when you’re in a hurry and you just want that wrinkle to go away.
Here’s the rub: starch has two big problems, one in the short-term, the other more long-term. When you use starch, know that when a wrinkle occurs, it shows deeper. The crease is more precise, and light has a lovely way of bouncing off it to show the crease to the world. In the long-term, starch can damage finer fabrics, including the 100s, 120s and 140 thread counts we use in our shirts.
So please reach for that starch sparingly, and know that you’ll get much more life out of your finer garments.
It’s an amazing moment – dare I say liberating – when you first recognize what it means, what it feels like, to wear clothing that fits. For some it happened very early in their lives, others much later. And while you won’t see us dishing out style advice (we think it’s entirely a personal thing), we do have a few things to say about fit. If you want to know if you’re frumpy (at least, in the choice of the shirt you’re wearing), look out for the following:
Though our design process is nothing like the mass-brand approach, we certainly have little bursts of inspiration that we draw on when considering a design, or even fabric. Naming our shirts – and articulating the ‘story’ – is an important activity for us, given it immediately communicates a personality, and thus a brand.
Writing a product story during the wee hours, our very own Matt came up with this hot mess of cliches:
A quick pic to share (granted, this is now old news). But wow, this was after an hour on the phone with FedEx, two different folks who said “we think your package has been damaged” and “it seems the package has been refused by recipient”. Not something you want to hear when you’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of your first production samples! Thankfully, they came in just fine.
Beyond delivering a beautiful product, our major concern with offshore production was partnering with a manufacturer that didn’t treat their people or environment well. It was (and is) vital that every production partner of ours takes sustainable manufacturing very seriously.
From the very beginning, we wanted to keep production in the US. Our target customer is American. And though we come from various ethnic backgrounds, we’re American. So we embarked on a nation-wide search for manufacturers who could bring the best 1) attention to detail 2) design-driven production, and 3) overall quality. We found a couple very capable companies, but were disappointed with the reality of manufacturing in the US: it’s way too expensive.
