The Mister Freedom® ARISTOCRAT is our humble attempt at a straight-up stylish dress shirt, made in USA.
This original pattern was initially introduced to our Sportsman catalog during Fall 2020, a fancy selvedge Oxford cloth release in two classic color options, white and blue.
The all-original design of our ARISTOCRAT was inspired by several vintage American and European classic dress and sport shirts from our archives.
Our intent was to merge traditional tailoring details with our own ideas, and simply create an elegant, unpretentious and versatile garment, a modern classic filled with subtle vintage references.
The connoisseur will notice the nod to gents’ outfitters Turnbull & Asser – and other bespoke shirtmakers – in our choice of “Regent” spread collar shape (dig that nice curve), although we opted for an unstructured collar construction (no fusing) for a more casual vibe.
We wanted the chest pocket design to be all ours and serve as outside branding, rather than an embroidered logo. Our R&D team got extra cups of brain juice to reinvent the wheel, one that would spin our own yarn. Sketches were drawn-up, prototypes made from scratch, and a eureka moment came sometime in February 2020 when an all-original pocket finally surfaced from the drafting table. We had our ARISTOCRAT classic chest pocket: a simple diamond shape with an elegant curved fold and streamlined stitching.
The specific off-set shirt tail cut, front button placket construction, and double button rounded cuffs, were also thoroughly considered and tweaked until it all worked out for our aesthetics.
The shirred rear panel with its rounded piecing patch is a detail borrowed from early European shirting, and, along with the classic side gussets displaying the fabric’s selvedge, add to the refined and subtle vintage appeal of the ARISTOCRAT.
The ARISTOCRAT is complimented by genuine mother of pearl buttons, another reference to traditional European bespoke tailoring, while the chainstitch construction (using MF® signature green contrast stitching) brings it down a few notches with a workwear touch (bespoke shirts often feature French seams, not chainstitch.)
The discreet red bartack on the gusset is a nod to the red stitched “H” of the iconic Hathaway brand, one of the last American shirtmaker to produce shirts in the USA, until they gave up on that endeavor around 2002…
For the silhouette, we opted for a trim fit, adjusting body pattern and side curves to convey broad shoulders and slim waist, balancing with a traditional shirt tail length.
For this FW2021 release of the ARISTOCRAT, we scored some yardage of a fancy New Old Stock Dobby Stripe fabric. The Dobby weave vertical stripe pattern is textured, a combo of grayish blue and gold stripes on an off-white background. This elegant 100% cotton shirting fabric has a probable Italian origin, and a definitely fancy textile pedigree.
Bottom line, the ARISTOCRAT is a reimagined vintage-style dress shirt that morphed into a versatile, casual, easy go-to garment, dressed-up with a suit or down with a pair of blue jeans, worn with a tie or open collar, tucked or untucked.
The MF® ARISTOCRAT Shirt is designed in California by Mister Freedom® and manufactured in the USA in collaboration with Sugar Cane Co.
