Talking to Parisian tailors this past week,
it struck me how many clients push for lighter and lighter-weight cloths for
their suits. In many ways, this can be misguided.
First, as Julien de Luca pointed in the
recent piece on Camps de Luca, the structure of a bespoke suit can only be
reduced so far. Having a lighter cloth doesn’t make much difference beyond a
certain point, and risks being disproportional to the canvas and so on.
Second, you can wear far more clothes than
you think. In warm weather it seems crazy to some people to wear a jacket and
long socks, but you get used to it surprisingly quickly. Wool breathes
extremely well, as the British Cool Wool campaign would tell you, or indeed
makers of sportswear like Rapha. The socks should be cotton, though.
Indeed, it is not necessarily the most
intelligent thing to remove all your clothes when it gets hot. The skin heats
up quickly in direct sunlight and can be much cooler under the shade of a suit’s
sleeve or trouser leg. There’s a reason that traditional Arabic dress is not
shorts and a T-shirt.
Third, and possibly most important, heavier
cloths look a lot better. They keep their shape, they drape better across your
perfectly tailored form and they carry accessories more easily. Go for a 13oz
suit, not an 11oz, for England most of the year round. Go for a heavier linen
suit – the coolness is already in the cloth. And consider changing the weave to
a hopsack or a fresco before you reduce the weight.
Wear better suits. Wear heavier suits.
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I live in the tropics. What would be a good compromise weight or type of material for the climate?
ReplyDeleteIt depends a little on the specific temperature and humidity, but I would recommend starting with a lightweight wool, between 9 and 11 ounce
DeleteThis man wears heavy suits and looks good:
ReplyDeletehttp://dailypicksandflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Prince-Charles-Photoshop-Challenge-meme-vs-Chubby-Bubbles-Girl-meme.jpg
"There’s a reason that traditional Arabic dress is not shorts and a T-shirt." - I beg to differ. Wouldn't that be to protect oneself against the sun? Indeed, why do we wear T shirts and shorts in South East Asia?
ReplyDeleteIt's for both reasons. Have you ever tried wearing, or better travelling in, a djellaba for instance?
DeleteAnonymous wears t-shirts and shorts in Southeast Asia because he's a tourist there. Those of us doing business wear long sleeve cotton dress shirts or batik prints for the reasons Simon mentioned.
DeleteI had a double breasted suit made last year. Gray flannel chalkstripe, 13oz. My tailor said three other clients eyed it when it came in for the second fitting, and ordered versions for themselves. It wears beautifully. But not in August.
As for travelling in a djellaba, unfortunately I fear what the reaction might be at airport security.
DeleteHa! Very true. Though I meant travelling as in backpacking - something I did a fair bit in the Middle East in my 20s.
DeleteWill from ASW reckons light wool socks wear cooler than cotton.
ReplyDeleteHave you not tried it yourself?
DeleteNever! Was a counter intuitive concept :)
DeleteI wear wool socks the whole year. I got used to the idea during my year in the Army, where there are two kinds of socks provided: thick woolen ones with felted soles, and thicker woolen ones to be worn on top of the others for extra insulation during the winter. Wool socks breathe wonderfully and I find that they keep my feet drier than cotton. Furthermore, moist cotton becomes very harsh on the skin, which invites blisters if the shoes do not fit perfectly (which is often the case during warm summer days, when the feet swell). Wool socks slide harmlessly against the leather and effectively prevent such problems.
ReplyDeleteAs a final, devastating argument, wearing wool socks prevent smelly feet.
I do agree that a heavier fabric drapes, and therefore looks, better. Alas, for those of us living in the tropics (Singapore in my case), a 13oz suit is simply not an option. Actually, merely wearing a jacket is not an option on most days, in a country where temperature rarely drops below 28 degrees and humidity is constantly 70%+.
ReplyDeleteI must be one of the only persons on the island wearing long socks (an absolute sartorial must, in my view), but even that takes a toll on some days.
I am having a suit being made in a 10oz H&S wool, that I will wear occasionally going to the office. I'll see how that goes.
Do, thanks Boris.
DeleteI used to travel to Hong Kong several times a year in my previous job, and although the suits I wore we're never 13oz, it was far more possible to wear a suit than most people realised. In Singapore too, though I was never there in the height of summer
Hello Simon,
DeleteThere's quite a diference between HK and Singapore. In HK, the temperature will drop to 10-15 degrees during the Winter, and would rarely exceed 25 degrees in Spring and Fall. So one can wear a jacket without a problem for most of the year.
It never drops below 25 degrees here, and on most mornings, just wearing a shirt, it is soaked by the time I reach my bus stop.
Which helps explain why HK has so much more style than Singapore. I see well dressed people in HK when I go there (after all, that's where the Armoury is located, so they have no excuse), but very, very rarely in Singapore. It's a bit of a stylistic desert here, although there are encouraging signs.
Thanks Boris, I do remember it being pretty sticky. Glad to hear there are encouraging signs though!
Deletethe difference between wearing a 200gr per meter (about Super 180) and your trasditional 300gr per meter fabrics (120) is immense when having to be in the tropics. i work around Jakarta, Singapore and other SEA capitals and even military style khaki's can be too heavy. At sub 240gr per meter, the skill of the tailor must be higher, the cloth has a pleasant moisture wicking effect (to a light extent), it begins to resemble linen in lightness but still retains a formal enough for business look.As for dissonace with the canvas lining, again, that depends on the skill of the tailor. the guys you see walking around kitted out really nicely in Singapore are either superhuman or are wearing a very fine fabric because personally, walking on the street in anything above 150 super (preferably half lined) is going to reduce me to looking like a crumpled sweaty fabric meatball.
ReplyDelete