Saffron wears Darby suit in 8 Wale cord, David wears Ivy Suit in Cotton Linen

A Stalwart for the Wardrobe

We have rekindled our love for Cotton Suits this Season as cotton can play such a key role in today’s more versatile wardrobes, given that it can be dressed up and or down, it also perfectly bridges the gap between summer linens and winter wools.

We all own prized pieces of cotton clothing from which we will not be separated. A French bleu de travail chore jacket here, a pair of indigo jeans or khaki chinos there, or perhaps a stalwart corduroy jacket?! But, cotton, and especially its sumptuous cousin corduroy and elegant uncle velvet, are far from Summer cloths, though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, given how much of the stuff fills the high street each Spring.

And the cornucopia of glorious colours that cotton explodes in each season are all rather enticing - natural fibres like cotton have an open, absorbent structure that allows dye to bond deep within the fibre rather than just sitting on the surface, which is why cotton holds colour with such vividness and depth compared to many other cloths - but colour is only half the story and Summer but a fleeting moment in the calendar.

With few exceptions - seersucker chief among them, which is woven with a puckered surface that lifts the cloth away from the skin and encourages airflow to keep the wearer cool - cotton is predominantly woven in a twill: a diagonal weave structure that is designed to trap heat against the body. Ask anyone who has worn a two-piece cotton suit to a summer wedding and stood outside in the sunshine how that went.. Which is exactly why we think of cotton as an Autumn/Winter cloth first, and a Summer one only by high-street habit.

Darby Suit — Corduroy or cotton twill

Beloved of both our male and female customers alike, the Darby Suit is now almost five years old and is sought after by artists, baristas and designers — and of course, Saffron Darby, after whom the suit takes its name.

The Darby Suit is a unisex affair, offered in cotton twill or corduroy, and available in as many colours as you can find cotton twill or corduroy in.

Ice Cream Suit

Kickstarting the season ahead, we may have perhaps enjoyed our last ice cream but look forward to breaking-out our new Ice Cream Suit! Made in a weighty but incredibly soft cotton-stretch cloth, it is available in a range of colours that would impress a gelateria. Inspired by the Seahorse Jacket which we made for The Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth, which is effectively a chore jacket with a Nehru collar but the Ice Cream Suits’ nehru collar can be turned down to reveal a notch lapel!

And whilst it also enjoys utilitarian patch-hip pockets, a welted breast pocket elevates the style. Matching chino trousers complete the look, offering the wearer what I refer to affectionately as the anti-suit i.e. a deconstructed jacket — no shoulder pads, no sleeve head, no lining, no canvas, with matching chino trousers. Simplicity at its tailored best.

Ivy Suit

Our latest cotton incarnation, The Ivy Suit, was inspired by our original Tobacco Suit, made some years ago and still popular with our customers today.

This time around, the suit is fatto-in-Italia, giving it a softer silhouette reminiscent of the suits of the 1960s, made in a cotton/linen cloth from the family-owned Italian cloth merchants Caccioppoli of Naples.

We've endeavoured to further capture the spirit of Ivy style by opting for a narrower lapel than has been the Neapolitan norm these past few years — measuring 3.5" with a 5mm pick-stitch around the edge — and, of course, the de rigeur three-roll-two button fastening synonymous with both Italian tailoring and Ivy style. The tailoring is soft, with padless shoulders and is half-lined so as to remain cool enough to wear into next spring, with patch pockets and the ticket pocket that's become something of a signature on our Italian jackets.

I opted for hip-adjusters on the trouser with a double pleat, though they could quite easily be worn with a flat front and belt loops for a belt — much as Brooks Brothers, the famous Fifth Avenue Ivy outfitters in New York, would likely have offered back in the day, and it can of course can be made in any cloth of your choosing.

Have you cottoned on…