By Eric Langlois
On the occasion of our first heat wave of the summer here on the East Coast, I think it’s important to think about which textiles are most appropriate for hot weather. Once air conditioning became all but required for new buildings in the middle of the 20th Century, dressing seasonally fell out of fashion. If you were going to the office, you wore the same worsted wool suit you wore in the winter, and the air conditioning in your car and place of business kept you cool. If you weren’t going to the office you probably wore shorts and a t-shirt or polo. But the last couple decades have seen a change in how people think about clothing. Buyers are more interested in natural materials, and changing styles have seen the return of resort wear that would have looked at home in the 1950s. This means that people are wearing a lot more linen.
Linen is one of the oldest textiles in history, first harvested from the wild flax plant more than 30,000 years ago. It has been cultivated for as long as humans have farmed and woven textiles, and because of its strength and durability, it remains in use in fields like baking, upholstery, and art supplies. However, linen is most closely associated with cool, practical, and stylish summer clothing.
The most familiar shade of linen is undyed or “natural”, usually associated with cream-colored summer suits and relaxed, tropical settings. A natural linen suit paired with a Panama hat is a classic look, reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood or F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, and it is also surprisingly practical. Linen naturally conducts heat, while light shades reflect the sun’s warmth away from the body, keeping you cool even when you’re out in the blazing sun. Linen’s natural stain-resistant properties also make lighter colors a safe choice, particularly when summer arrives in earnest.
In the height of summer heat, another clothing staple is a linen shirt. An important property of linen is its ability to absorb water, and linen worn next to the skin can help keep the wearer dry and comfortable on the hottest days. Linen trousers are similarly useful, protecting the legs from direct sunlight and wicking away moisture. Even socks can be found in linen, keeping feet dry and cool throughout the summer.
Linen knitwear is having a fashion moment as well. Knit clothing allows for a more breathable garment, which means that even if a linen sweater is thicker than a shirt, it can wear cooler due to the increased airflow it allows. As the knit polo shirt, tee shirt, and short sleeve sweater have come back into fashion, more of them have been manufactured in linen to maximize hot weather comfort.
One controversial quality of linen is its tendency to crease with wear, due to its soft and pliant nature. To many, these “millionaire’s wrinkles” are part of the charm of linen clothing, conveying a relaxed or casual attitude in a suit or sport coat. For those who prefer a crisper look, linen can easily be found blended with wool, cotton, or silk, which will resist wrinkling while still including the cooling benefits that linen provides. Heavier weaves of linen will also resist wrinkling more than lighter weights, and any creases that build up throughout the day have a tendency to drop out when the garment is hung up after wear.
Besides its famous creases, linen in darker shades has a tendency, like cotton, to fade more readily than wool does. If this is not desirable then it’s best to wear linen in lighter colors, but these fades can add to the charm of a casual linen garment. An olive green linen shirt that has been worn and laundered dozens of times will have softness and patterns of wear comparable to a well-loved pair of raw denim jeans, and can convey a relaxed, unbothered summer vibe.
This kind of casualness is inherent in the charm of the resort wear I mentioned earlier. Camp collared shirts, knit polos, and breezy linen trousers are all signifiers of a laid-back, aspirational kind of life. Even if you’re wearing them to a busy office, they convey the image of someone who could be having a late breakfast at a seaside café. Linen is a casual material - it’s harder to make a linen suit look stiff and businesslike, and why would you? If you’re wearing wrinkled wool suit you’ve lost control of your life, but if your linen suit is wrinkled then you’ve obviously planned for this and you’re totally in control, even in the hottest of weather
Eric Langlois
Eric Langlois is a writer, menswear professional, and history enthusiast based on the North Shore of Massachusetts.
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