Cuban icons number aplenty, from Che Guevara - immortalised on posters and t-shirts - to the Soviet-era Ladas that cruise the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba in the shape of taxis, emergency vehicles and pimped-out tourist rides. One lesser-known icon however is the guayabera shirt, thought to have originated some time in the 18th century in the city of Sancti Spiritus where a wealthy landowner asked his wife to create him a shirt with multiple pockets cut from a lightweight cotton fabric called batiste. The landowners fruit-picking workers decided to copy the shirt and named it 'yayabera' after the river that ran through the estate.
Another account suggests that the name was derived from the large pockets of the shirt which were used by the workers to carry the fruit 'guayabas' (guavas as we know them). Either way, the shirt was born, with the earliest versions featuring four front pockets, vertical pleats and in many cases decorative embroidery. Think of it as a lightweight safari shirt for the tropics.
While the guayabera has remained a historical icon, it gave both to the more contemporary Cuban collar shirt, defined by its double-notched stitched-on collar that sits flat against the chest. In recent years, the Cuban collar - also known as the camp collar - has exploded in popularity.
The Cuban Collar shirt
