The Lightweight Summer Suits That Don’t Wrinkle Like Linen
Few fabrics enjoy such great PR as linen. What are typically viewed as flaws in other garments—wrinkles, creases, and folds—become louche and charming when linen is discussed. But not every man is going to read poetry out of rumples.
Fortunately for this subset, there is an abundance of alternatives to pure linen on the market today. From breathable and lightweight woolens to clever blends, it’s possible to stay cool in a jacket or suit this summer without surrendering to the deep creases of 100 percent linen.
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Simón Martelo, who serves as the director and cutter of Bogotá’s Martelo Bespoke Tailors, steers his clients towards linen blends, which incorporate other fibers to utilitarian ends. “The blends create fabrics that perform in very specific ways; for example, a wool/silk/linen will have the coolness of the linen, the sheen of the silk, and will wrinkle less because of the wool,” he tells Robb Report. “These blends also allow for linen to be woven into a large number of patterns for both jackets and full suits that are less common in pure linens.”
The Anthology, which maintains showrooms in Hong Kong and Taipei, has found a near-equal parts recipe of linen and cotton milled in Japan to be a favorite, to the extent that it was used exclusively in a ready-to-wear “Core” collection commemorating the custom clothier’s fifth anniversary.
“A 55 percent linen with a 45 percent cotton blend is a fine balance that brings out the best of both worlds—keeps linen’s sharpness in retaining form and structure while the cotton gives a slightly lumpier, softer silhouette, making it more supple and fluid,” says The Anthology’s founder Buzz Tang.
Others employ blends that dispense with linen entirely. London’s Anglo-Italian, which has previously traded in twisted linen tailoring, has for this season introduced suits made from a blend of 89 percent cotton and 11 percent silk. According to Anglo-Italian co-founder Jake Grantham, this composition yields a cotton suit that wrinkles less and performs better, in addition to its visual cache.
“Silk when blended also adds a matte and slubby effect, which is perfect for our aesthetic,” Grantham says in a statement.
And then there’s wool. While often thought of as a fall or winter fabric, the way wool is woven can make it an outstanding choice for warm, humid weather. Geoff Wheeler of Huddersfield Fine Worsteds says its Super 150s QX collection is among its most popular bunches for summer, thanks to a tropically appropriate weight that falls between 8½ to 9½ ounces and a proprietary finishing process that leaves it cool to the touch.
And though the Yorkshire mill does a robust business in wool/silk/linen blends via its recently introduced Summer Breeze book, the jewel in its warm-weather crown remains Fresco. Patented by the maker in 1907, Fresco is two-ply, 9 oz fabric woven from 100 percent wool to be tight yet porous, ensuring easy air circulation and the ability to bounce back from wrinkles.
“The reason it works is that it does exactly what you need of a summer suit. It breathes, it wears well, it holds its shape and it sheds its creases,” Wheeler says of the fabric, which is also available as a softer-to-the-touch iteration dubbed Fresco Lite.
Lastly, Wheeler says that he’s recently grown fond of the mill’s Super Gabardine bunch. While sitting on the heavier side of the spectrum at 12 oz, the wool fabric is available in soft, pastel colors—a reflection of its 1970s origins to serve the Florida market—and benefits from a flexible, steep twill weave originally intended to suit horseback riders (it also suited Mick Jagger, who sported a gabardine suit to his 1971 wedding to Bianca Perez-Mora Macias).
Try as we might, wrinkles are an inevitability in life. But with the aid of a carefully woven or blended fabric, you can stay cool while keeping them (mostly) out of sight—as far as your threads are concerned.
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