The Hawaiian shirt is not business casual. It's not meant for the boardroom or a cocktail party at an upscale lounge. You won't often wonder whether your pastel palm trees go with your best pair of slacks. With its short sleeves, unstructured collar and I'm-down-for-whatever attitude, there are few places the Hawaiian shirt is at home that isn't the beach, the pool, or ... yeah, Hawaii.
Which is exactly why Nick Bailey has been stuck on making a business out of them for years now.
The founder of just-launched apparel brand Fielder's Derby, along with fellow Cincinnatians Dan Cosgrove and Kyle Haungs, Bailey is staking his apparel claim on the bold and the brash, and rowdy and the unkempt. If you want slim and trim and capable of matching with all your best shoes, you're barking up the wrong palm tree. But for the guy who likes to turn heads and have fun doing it, there could be something special here.
"To us it's the everything-goes type shirt," Bailey told me over lunch in Downtown Crossing. All three guys have full-time jobs, and will be roommates in Beacon Hill come this fall. For them, this is something to wear to have fun, and to invoke that sense of loosening up in the people around them. "We just don't really give a shit," Bailey went on.
I first happened on Fielder's Derby at BostInno's annual summer bash, BostonFest. In a sea of startup shirts–seriously, it was a who's who of the established companies and up-and-comers–these guys, strutting their stuff, networking and just taking it in, definitely stood out.
Talking to Bailey, short-shorts mega-company Chubbies naturally came up. In a way, Fielder's Derby is attempting to do for our upper halves what Chubbies has done for the lower: offer a piece of clothing that's at once comfortable and fun, but also discernibly against the establishment.
(And yes: Bailey is fully aware Chubbies makes Hawaiian shirts. But his are different, he feels, in price, prints and overall approach. Hawaiian shirts, after all, is what Fielder's Derby is planting its flag in.)
"We're staying away from becoming a 'fashion' brand," said Bailey. "Think of it as a Vineyard Vines tie, but on a shirt."
As if making Hawaiian shirts for the modern man wasn't enough–or, perhaps, because it's exactly right– the shirts of Fielder's Derby are patterned in a way that basically dares you not to take notice. You either want one or you tip your hat to those who can pull it off, but regardless, an impression has been made.
The signature shirt, The Infielder (the company is named for the infield at the Kentucky Derby, which is decidedly less stuffy than through the gates), currently comes in two prints: race cars and palm trees, and the print that started it all, sharks and skis.
And these aren't the almost apologetic critter shorts you'll see on the Cape or, let's be honest, all over Boston, imprinted with miniature lobsters or Golden Retrievers, so small you need to squint to discern what you're looking at. No. These race cars are freaking huge. And you'd recognize them as sharks and skis, no question, from across a crowded bar.
And coming soon, expect elephants and surf boards as well as banjos and cowboy boots. I mean, I can't make this stuff up.
The guys of Fielder's Derby certainly made a splash at BostonFest, an event with nearly 2,000 attendees. (I was asked if I'd seen the guys in the shark shirts numerous times.) And they're hoping that type of attention is what will propel them to bigger markets and a larger product offering.
But they know who they are, and what they're about. They're as patriotic as they come, for example, but American Flag apparel has been done and is being done over and over. They are different, but better or for worse.
"I would rather go down defying the norm," said Bailey, over his final bite of pizza before getting back to the office.
Images provided.
