Summer Style Part i : Linen Slacks
Few cloths are as perfect for Summer as linen: which is why we have included it in this year’s Custom Collection. So, gentlemen: drafted, crafted and tailored, let us introduce you to your new go-to Summer Slacks!
This somewhat gorgeous ginger linen trouser is soft, comfortable and instantly lovable, with that natural texture and inherent lived in look which makes it so iconic.
As for colour… well, these particular strides were actually inspired by a chemise which our very own Saffron Darby designed for Toast in her capacity as their Senior Designer. (They might even have made a metamorphosis into my own signature Summer Suit this year, but for the fact that rich terracotta shades near my face will drain away any hint of a tan that I might garner en route from my doorstep to the sartorial dungeon aka Brown in Town HQ).
I am oft’ surprised that (Sartorialists apart) more gents don't embrace this versatile and practical cloth. Linen is most certainly fit-for purpose. Grooms often enquire which cloth I would suggest for their Summer wedding kit, given that they need a suit which will be (a) on display, (b) worn all day, (c) carousing on a farm at the height of Summer with no shade in sight (and by the way did they mention that heatstroke runs in the family..). Linen is, by far, the smartest and most sensible choice to help them keep their cool.
If in doubt, a groom should take a linen leaf from the book of past sartorial giants: chaps like Hemingway, who certainly knew what it was to spend his days in the sun, or Michael Caine, who sported an exquisite Italian beige two-piece for The Italian Job, filmed in Turin’s blistering summer of ’68. Then there is the most recognisable linen suit of that era, Roger Moore’s Safari Suit featured in Moonraker (both fashioned by the late great master tailor Douglas Hayward) and, on the small screen, the suit sported by the Man From Delmonte, who most certainly said ‘Yes!’ to linen.
Whilst linen is prone to creasing, (which is of course, part of its inherent beauty), linen flax can absorb 20% of it’s own weight in moisture: it is ostensibly Mother Nature’s Gore-Tex, and ergo why linen clothing provides a cooling effect on the body and is ideal for Summer suiting, as it wicks away the heat.
So beat that..!