There’s something inherently exciting about a camp-collar shirt. It could be the generous cuts, the bold prints or the sea breeze that metaphorically wafts through when you wear one. But can a camp-collar shirt be a work of art? A rarefied upgrade of your standard printed shirt, this bright version by CELINE HOMME, in collaboration with Chicago-based artist Mr Tyson Reeder, makes a convincing case.

This shirt is part of Mr Hedi Slimane’s new SS21 collection “The Dancing Kid” for CELINE HOMME, which draws inspiration from TikTok dance crazes, skaters, eboys and other youth subcultures, adding a trademark dash of punk rock. For this release, Slimane collaborated with six artists in total to create a collection of vibrant graphics and fun prints alongside more understated staple pieces.

Renowned for his vivid abstract paintings, Reeder says he is inspired by patterns and prints he finds in thrift-store clothing. In “Autobahn” (2019), which is showcased on Slimane’s favoured camp-collar cut for CELINE HOMME, the artist trawls hazy memories of days spent at the beach. His collage-style vision of palm trees on the turquoise watercolour background nods to Miami and Cuban frescos, and appears across the collection on souvenir jackets, shorts and tees.

Here, though, it enables Slimane’s sly variation of the aloha shirt, a style with roots in the Philippines, or possibly Mexico (its origin story is about as carefree as the item itself), before making its way into Cuban workwear in the form of the guayabera, a lightweight covering worn by farmers to handle the heat. It wasn’t until the Cuban Exile of 1959 that the style shored up in the US, although another variation sailed across the Pacific Ocean from Southeast Asia to Hawaii in the form of imported fabric. By the 1930s, the Hawaiians were printing their own materials, creating the now-renowned Hawaiian, or rather aloha, shirt.