Gant Rugger Pullover

Any self-righteous, half-baked #menswear blogger is probably going to be incredibly dismissive about this post, but that's okay. Style is a personal journey, and frankly I've never cared much about what people think of me anyways. That said, on to the review!

I purchased this Gant Rugger twill check pullover with some money I got from Christmas. I realize $125 (I did not get it on sale unfortunately, but you can benefit from my mistake) is a bit much to spend on a casual shirt, especially for a sartorial novice. But frankly I'm beginning to find that I have enough clothes (read, more than enough). So from now on, I'm either going to spend what would've gone towards clothes on either A. more expensive, quality pieces, or B. experimental pieces that stray a bit from my norm. This shirt is a bit of both, and while readers from more cultural metropolises may not find a pullover to be too experimental, they're none too common in the Midwest.

Pros:

The color is great, a very saturated red and blue (the pictures don't do it justice). The twill cotton is soft (felt almost like flannel before the first wash), and a bit thick. The fit is slim, and a medium fit my skinnier frame quite nicely. It fact it seems slightly tapered, as it appears to narrow towards the tails, such that there's no extra fabric that would billow were you to tuck it in (although the shirt is too short to be tucked in, and I'm not sure why you'd want to anyway). The construction and stitching seem quality enough, although admittedly I probably can't differentiate decent stitching from a truly great job. More time and wear will be a better judge. 

Cons:

As my personal style evolved, I moved away from t-shirts and more towards button-up sport shirts. Part of this was because I felt my look needed to mature as I did, but the other part was also because I tend to get hot fairly easily. Blame it on my ancestors who lived on a rainy, 50 degree island, but I found that button-up shirts tended to breathe just as easily, if not more so, as t-shirts. 

In regards to this post, I found the pullover to be hot. Frankly it just didn’t breathe as well as I would have liked. Now to be clear, that’s no knock on this shirt itself. The construction was great, the fit perfect, and I found it to be plenty warm on its own. In fact I doubt any change to the shirt itself would’ve remedied my issue. The lack of full-frontal buttons make pullovers too hot for me (Hell I’m uncomfortable in those cheap long sleeve t-shirts). 

That’s me being picky though. After all, you should only wear things you actually want to wear, and despite it being a bit warm, this shirt is still appealing in its color and uniqueness.