A Brand To Watch: Hugh & Crye

I recently had the chance to spend some time with Pranav Vora and Philip Soreano, the duo behind the DC-based brand of Hugh & Crye.  Based in D.C.’s Georgetown, about  a 30-second stroll form the now nationally famous Georgetown Cupcake, they make shirts and some darn good ones at that.

Hugh & Crye is a play on the ancient term ‘hue and cry’. In medieval England, civilians who witnessed a crime were bound by common law to exercise hue and cry, essentially shouting and clamoring, to help apprehend the criminal and bring him to justice.

The guys at H&C prefer to view it as seeing something wrong in the world, and doing something about it. The wrong they see is a plethora of ill fitting and overpriced shirts.  The doing something about it is Hugh & Crye.

Their shirts are not customized, a big trend at the moment, but rather sized by body type – an innovative and clever approach that really does work for most men. And through a combination of outstanding fabrics, detailed tailoring and creative but still practical designs, H&C really has developed a great brand for the right market.

Pranav and and H&C founding partner Ernest Chrappah spent a lot of time creating a particular look and feel to their shirts, testing sizing models and sourcing some great two-ply Egyptian cottons.

They also built in some classic styling to their modern take on the dress shirt and drew inspiration from menswear’s luminaries.  To whit, in the picture below you can see the classic books Dressing The Man and Style and the Man, both by OTC’s good friend Alan Flusser, sitting prominently in H&C’s office.  As they are big fans of Alan, I took a couple of minutes to show off our BeSpeak iPhone app.

To learn more about Hue & Crye, please visit their website.