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J. Hilburn Shirts?

DC_lawstd

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Does anyone have experience with J. Hilburn shirts? http://www.jhilburn.com/default.aspx Apparently it is a direct sales company that deals in MTM shirts (a rep comes to measure you and then you can reorder online). I did a search here and AAAC with no results. They source fabric from Tessitura Monti which seems to get favorable reviews here.

My online shirtings to date from come from Paul Fredrick or LE and I'm planning on moving up into the next bracket when the bar exam is over in July. I don't if the $79 (or 99 or 149) here is worth it, given the fabrics options, or if there are better values to be found elsewhere.
 

Shirtmaven

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Hard to tell much about this company without logging in, which i had no desire to do.
at these prices, it looks like typical Hong kong/china workmanship. well made shirts. all dependant on who takes your measurements.
by the way. Most of these Monti fabrics are now being produced in India. Nice stuff, but not Italian.
Carl
 

JH_Partner

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Hello. I am a Style Advisor for J. Hilburn, and thought I would provide some more detail. J. Hilburn is a direct sales company, and we have a team of Style Advisors nationwide that take measurements and help customers purchase custom shirts. Our manufacturing is in Asia, however, we work with a highly reputable company that makes shirts for leading global brands. We were fortunate they were willing to setup a custom business, so we did not need to use independent tailor shops.

Our fabrics are supplied by Tessitura Monti, and we source directly from Italy. We agree that Italian finishing is second-to-none. I believe Monti's India-based mill supplies exclusively to one of their largest customers.

Our goal is to offer high quality product, and our pricing is better because we sell direct. We want to build customers for life, and offer everyone a full guarantee that they will like their shirts.
 

82-Greg

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Originally Posted by JH_Partner
...Our fabrics are supplied by Tessitura Monti, and we source directly from Italy. We agree that Italian finishing is second-to-none. I believe Monti's India-based mill supplies exclusively to one of their largest customers...

Very well said non-denial of the original statement. You don't outright say the assertion that the fabric is made in India incorrect, but you imply its incorrect. You "source" your fabric from Italy, but you have no idea where its actually made!

Are you a politician?
 

Tailor In Style

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I think he does have a point, many people frown at clothes being made in Asia, but great shirts come from there to most global brands and this is a terrible mind set in my opinion. It really is up to quality control and the standards that are in place at the factory.

However, the website does seem quite incomplete. They might be focusing their efforts on being offline.. who knows...
 

oscarthewild

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Originally Posted by Shirtmaven
Hard to tell much about this company without logging in, which i had no desire to do.
at these prices, it looks like typical Hong kong/china workmanship. well made shirts. all dependant on who takes your measurements.
by the way. Most of these Monti fabrics are now being produced in India. Nice stuff, but not Italian.
Carl



I have a few shirts of older italian Monti stuff, quite under rated IMO. A more solid animal than mcuh of the Thomas Mason/albini/alumo that is more common... Richer dyes are primarily attracted me to it. Fabric is about 5 years old and I cannot get any more.

Have two more Monti fabric shirts. One is very fine (120s??), the other is 100s. These are the business like light blue and white type shirts. No complaints at all. This fabric is about 3 years old too. Italian from what I gathered.

Some of the Indian stuff I have seen is surprisingly good. But then I have not worn and washed it for a few years.
 

JH_Partner

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Originally Posted by 82-Greg
Very well said non-denial of the original statement. You don't outright say the assertion that the fabric is made in India incorrect, but you imply its incorrect. You "source" your fabric from Italy, but you have no idea where its actually made!

Are you a politician?

Let me clarify - our Monti fabrics are woven ("made") in Italy and shipped from Italy to our production center in Asia.
 

Shirtmaven

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Originally Posted by JH_Partner
Let me clarify - our Monti fabrics are woven ("made") in Italy and shipped from Italy to our production center in Asia.

Just like brembana that used to ship goods to Italy from India and then out to their customers worldwide.

The Monti/aquarelle shirt factory in india does not use up all of the fabric produced in India.
Italian Monti fabric is quite nice.
I have some sample cuts of Indian made monti fabric. You would not be able to tell the difference with out the country of origin markings.
Carl
 

Bespoke Guy

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These are not true made to measure. A true custom shirt is made the way YOU want it, not what they can only handle. Their "style advisors" are not tailors, just glorified order takers. There are plenty of other options available - a good Hong Kong Tailor for one. Hillburn only takes minimal measurements and if you want something a little different - they can't handle it. It's basically over priced Land's End Custom. I tried them, including their pants, and sent it all back. I felt it was false and misleading advertising. Their custom pants are anything but. Don't waste your time or money, there are many more options out there. Italian fabric is very good, but Swiss is the best, and it is made entirely in Switzerland. I've had my clothes custom made for 35 years, you can't beat a real tailor. I'm in NYC so I have great resources, but they exist in any major city.
 

le.gentleman

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Recently, I had the chance to test several J Hilburn products including shirts and pants. First of all, J Hilburn is not a custom or bespoke operation. The shirts are MTM with certain limitations. I just wrote a detailed review about a J Hilburn shirt made of a Monti fabric that might be of interest to you. The pants are MTO not MTM. They come unhemmed and then they have local tailors who alter them to fit.
 

C MattssonJH

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Originally Posted by Shirtmaven
Hard to tell much about this company without logging in, which i had no desire to do.
at these prices, it looks like typical Hong kong/china workmanship. well made shirts. all dependant on who takes your measurements.
by the way. Most of these Monti fabrics are now being produced in India. Nice stuff, but not Italian.
Carl


These fabrics are not made in India. Monti does have mills there but the fabrics sourced by J Hilburn actually come from Italy. The workmanship is top notch and there are many happy clients out there whose wardrobes are full of JH clothing. If the measurements are not right the style advisor will work with you to make them right so that you have a shirt that actually fits perfectly.
 

C MattssonJH

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Originally Posted by le.gentleman
Recently, I had the chance to test several J Hilburn products including shirts and pants.

First of all, J Hilburn is not a custom or bespoke operation. The shirts are MTM with certain limitations.
I just wrote a detailed review about a J Hilburn shirt made of a Monti fabric that might be of interest to you.

The pants are MTO not MTM. They come unhemmed and then they have local tailors who alter them to fit.


By the way you mention in your article that JH can't address the sloping shoulder issue. As a style advisor who has had a client with this very issue I can attest to the A body cut doing the trick. This gentleman was fairly slight in build and the first try at his custom shirt had the wrinkles you showed. The new remake with the A body worked very well to address this issue. He was very happy with the end result. Hope that helps for anyone who needs this type of customization.
 

Shirtmaven

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Originally Posted by le.gentleman
Recently, I had the chance to test several J Hilburn products including shirts and pants.

First of all, J Hilburn is not a custom or bespoke operation. The shirts are MTM with certain limitations.
I just wrote a detailed review about a J Hilburn shirt made of a Monti fabric that might be of interest to you.

The pants are MTO not MTM. They come unhemmed and then they have local tailors who alter them to fit.


you have seriously sloping shoulders.
i doubt any basic MTM program is going to clean up the slopes.
 

2ManyShoes

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I have over a dozen Hilburn shirts. I wear them with Brioni and Kiton suits, and they hold up fine. I also have dozens of Borrelli and other high-end Italian shirts. Obviously, the hand-finishing on those is far beyond the finishing on Hilburns, but the Hilburns fit orders of magnitude better. For 1/4 to 1/3 the price.

I agree that the key is a good Style Advisor. Mine is fantastic. I call and she's there, in my office, usually the same day. Her measurements are excellent. I wasn't completely happy with my first shirt. She replaced it within days, at no charge.

If you want a "nearly" custom shirt--one that will fit you very well, made from excellent Italian fabric you pick, fitted by someone who makes FREE housecalls--for $80-$150, then you simply can't beat Hilburn.

Can you find things they don't do? At that price point, of course you can. If you want something exotic done well, you should expect to pay for it. But for the vast majority of dress shirt requirements, Hilburn is fine. And I've asked for several variations (including collar formats) that aren't in the catalog, and they've always been able to do them, usually for no extra charge. And if you don't like it--for any reason--they will make you another one.

I think you have to be a bit of a Scrooge not to like them.

My $0.02.
 

Customer

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I've bought MANY custom shirts in HK, and more through the fellow who advertises in WSJ and Barron's; and yes, from Brooks, Lands End and Jos A Banks. Worn them all.

NO SHIRT ever felt as good, especially for the value, as my shirts from J. Hilburn. You go through a bunch of measurements, then you get a shirt to test pretty quickly, then the rest come. I haven't had to modify anything, but if I do, I am assured by my style advisor, Amy, that it will be handled with the same urgency as my financial advisor would handle an issue. I've set up a few clients/friends with a gift shirt, and each have promptly bought more once they got a sense of the fabrics, the measure and the service. These are extroardinary shirts, and an extraordinary service.
 

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