Pictured: Veloso Embroidered Shirt - Abstract Flower
We argue about what to call them – Cuban, camp, revere – but at Far Afield we keep coming back to the open-collar shirt. Cut in one piece without a stand, it rolls into a small lapel and opens a clean V, simple, timeless engineering that draws us back season after season.
The shape grew from early-20th-century leisurewear and light tailoring – pyjama jackets, beach and lounging sets, and the interwar sport shirt. They shared the same idea, with an open neck or convertable collar, a straight hem, and a touch of room so the cloth hangs rather than clings. After the 1940s the form travelled widely: Latin American guayaberas kept the open neck but added pockets and pleats; Hawaiian makers paired the collar with bold florals; bowling and resort shirts standardised the straight hem and a slightly boxy block so the fabric fell clean. From Havana to Honolulu the names shifted, from revere in Britain (a tailoring term for a small, stand-less lapel) to camp, and later Cuban, in the US, but the mechanics remained.
Pictured: Veloso Waffle Shirt - Navy (left), Veloso Embroidered Shirt - Hand-Eye (right)
For Autumn/Winter ’25 we carry the open-collar into a range of texture-led layering pieces. The Hiro Overshirt uses a weighty brushed jacquard with motifs lifted from early modern art. The pattern is woven in, raised on one side and recessed on the other, a weighty and tactile piece that sits somewhere between shirt and jacket. The Hiro Check Shirt (coming soon) takes the mid-century sport shirt and gives it a yarn-dyed grindle weave, with twisted contrasts creating a soft, mottled check that feels lived-in from the start. The Veloso Waffle Shirt focuses on fabric structure, its puckered, grid-like cloth trapping small pockets of air for natural breathability. And the Veloso Embroidered Shirt sets neat geometric emblems at the hem of a dense basket-weave cotton, a quiet Bauhaus nod that suits the collar’s clean geometry. Each piece keeps the straight hem and open collar, which is why they slide smoothly under chore coats and jackets, or sit seamlessly over a tee or knit.
Pictured: Hiro Check Shirt - Orange (left), Hiro Overshirt - Arrows (right)
We still honour the louder branch of the family. Hawaiian printed camp shirts, from sun-bleached florals to film references, are part of the form’s DNA, and that spirit runs through our perennial capsules and collaborations, from the made-in-USA Magnum P.I. collection, to POP and Sopranos. Here, the collar gives the artwork its frame.
The open-collar shirt is a small piece of design history that continues to earn its place in our collections, our wardrobes, our hearts. Different names, one enduring idea – made to go further than summer.
