The Holiday Shirt Manufacturer
We love working with family-run businesses that are generations old. The shirt maker in the north of Portugal that produces the Kerrin Holiday Shirt is a prime example of a business that has passed expertise down the family line, combining know-how and pure heart to make garments of great quality and longevity.
On one of our visits to Portugal (back when air travel was easy), it was a pleasure to have Antonio take us through the floor, meet the team and allow us to photograph his accomplished establishment. In a display of their meticulous attention to detail, he walked us through the dozens of individual steps required to produce one hand-crafted shirt and the company’s efforts to maintain high-quality craftsmanship by combining tradition with innovative practices. They’ve been going and growing since the 1940s to a point where production space is difficult to secure among the international labels for which the manufacturer produces.
Kerrin paper patterns.
We’re wrapped that they produced the Kerrin Holiday Shirt for us, which is an antipodean take on the original “vacation shirt” that was made famous by a young Elvis Presley in movies such as Blue Hawaii. Made in a weighty 100% linen woven in Italy and featuring buttons made of natural corozo nut from Ecuador, our holiday shirt is cut in an airy fit, with a straight-bottom hem and side splits allowing the shirt to be worn out and untucked. A key trait is the "camp collar" - an easy-going style of collar made in a one-piece construction, (without the typical collar stand featured on most shirts). Dyed in garment form to encourage a well-worn look over time, this holiday shirt gives a subtle nod to the style’s 1950s heritage that tends to bear much louder patterns than our understated version.
Fusing collars.
The cutting table.
Whether you’re on a tropical island or just dreaming, this shirt will take you from good time to good time. Or, if you’re in a locked down town like Melbourne as we are right now, it’ll take you from kitchen to courtyard cocktails - easy breezy.
The Holiday Shirt has been designed in Australia and made in Portugal with fabric woven in Italy.
We’re looking forward to a time when we're all through this pandemic and when we can again visit Europe to see our friends and garment makers in person. Until then, we’re settling with Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp and Facetime to stay in touch and ensure we can continue to bring well-designed and well-made pieces to the Kerrin rolling collection.
Sewing with precision.
