Pattern pending
Get ready — a wave of loud, boxy shirts is set to break this summer
Popular culture is peppered with cool dudes in loud, short-sleeved shirts: Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona, Christian Slater in True Romance, di Caprio in Romeo + Juliet, Depp and del Toro in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, heck, even Ace Ventura knew what was cool. It seems odd then that the trend for brash, boxy, arm-baring shirts should take so long to materialise. But it’s finally here for spring/summer 2018, and the options are abundant. Hailing from Honolulu, Hawaii (with a little help from Chinese and Filipino immigrants who settled there), “Aloha shirts” first appeared in the early 20th-century and traditionally feature geometric prints of flora and fauna indigenous to the South Pacific, but it’s all changed now. A slew of brands have taken the Hawaiian trend to new heights with prints featuring koi carp, eagles, desert vignettes, Romanesque tiles and even comic strips. Essentially, the gloves are off... so go wild.