As with most iconic designs rooted in 19th Century traditional clothing, old folklore and history, the Guayabera’s tale remains unclear even for costume scholars.
The design of our shirt is heavily inspired by a vintage 1950’s specimen from our archives. If we kept the overall vibe and essence of that vintage shirt for our humble fashion interpretation, we decided to replace the tight rows of stitched vertical pleats by appliqué panels, racing-style.
For the front closure buttons, we had a limited batch custom-made and replicated from a vintage specimen, opting for actual ox bone material instead of the usual plastic. Our MERIDANA features twenty-eight (!) buttons, a combination of two styles: the oblong hand-sewn ones aforementioned, and a vintage 1930’s new old stock model of Portuguese manufacture from our archives, also made from ox bone.
Style-wise, this untucked tropical shirt is quite versatile. Our MERIDANA can be paired with dressy gents’ trousers, cool Californian colored jeans or blue jeans, chinos, vintage slacks… eventually complimented by a pair of huaraches or Spanish/French espadrilles. And a Panama hat for good measure.
The mfsc MERIDANA is designed in California by Mister Freedom®, and manufactured in Japan by Sugar Cane Co., from fabrics milled in Japan.