Panama stowaway overshirts

Sturdy cotton-panama sees the stowaway overshirt take up position at the light-jacket end of the overshirt continuum. Not surprisingly, then, it’s happiest worn over shirt and t-shirt: an easy spring-time top-layer.

By comparison to, say, the drill used for the tour jacket, or the twills used for similar garments in months past, the panama is more rigid and robust. It holds dear to its shape; the type of cloth whose long-lasting/hard-wearing credentials are clear from the get-go.

But panama isn’t the whole story. The stowaway overshirt is in fact made up of two different materials, with the collar being a cotton-twill — the same colour as the panama, suffice to say, and from the same mill in north-west England, but heavier weight and softer finish. Potentially chin- and cheek-friendlier, then; much more the stuff of collars.

The turn-down pocketing on the overshirt runs all the way from the side-seams to the centre-front edge, on both sides — thus making the entire lower-half front of the garment, in effect, pocket. Handy, then, for stowing away what you will without much thought.

Navy and stone get the ball rolling: the latter, depending on how you look at it, is a very, very, very light grey, or a type of muted beige — neither of which sound quite as convincing as stone. They both use the same buttons: real corozo nut from the Midlands.