Something Linen

The prospect of owning a linen suit again has been lingering for years, but until now never made its way up on the list. I’ve had previous experience with both British linen and Italian linen, but, as the prospect of a suit would entail British linen, I haven’t been completely sold on the fabric.

So, just to be clear, as it pertains to summer wear, I am fully aware of linens excellent properties. My quarrel has always been with linen’s proclivity to crease, not to mention the lack of drape. Juxtaposing linen and high-twists, they both have superb qualities as far as summer wear goes, but the latter also drapes extremely well while additionally being incredibly crease resistant. All this said, essentially, my late return back to the linen stage has had more to do with lack of need than lack of love.

Cloth Properties

Huddersfield

 　→  Casual Irish Linen

• 100% Linen

• 340g

The choice of linen provider ended with Huddersfield and their Casual Irish Linen bunch. This was mostly based on colour, but overall my impression is that the Irish linen bunches are more or less the same as far as properties goes.

It’s like a breeze. Not like a high-twist mind you, I still uphold the opinion that high-twists are superior, but we all know linen is superb for summer.

As the only linen fabric I have to compare it with currently is the one from my Spence Bryson trousers, this isn’t an overtly educated assessment, but the first thing I noticed was that the look of the Huddersfield linen looks a lot more like a high-twist than the Spence Bryson linen does. Being unable to compare jacket to jacket, I wouldn’t know how much it affects the breathability, but based on the trousers, I think the Huddersfield linen seems softer, more breathable and more comfortable to wear.

Cloth Look

As just mentioned, the fabric is somwehat of a high-twist looking linen. With my affinity for high-twists and generally open plain weaves, this is of course something I deem a good thing. It does perhaps take away some of that “linen rustique”, but it’s definitely still there.

Furthermore the colour is of some significance here, because that rustic look usually is associated with the brown linen cloths.

Which is a good segue into perhaps the most important visual part of a fabric: the colour.

Most would expect my first return to linen suiting to be of a more earth toney character. More specifically, brown. Now, you can bet that a brown linen suit has not just been on my mind and in the plans, but it was also on top of that list. But given the two brown high-twist suits I already own, the need for yet another brown summer suit seemed less acute. That said, it’s definitely on the list.

Burgundy was long on the list and I’m not completely sure how I ended up with burgundy linen specifically, nor this specific bold rendition. There’s been quite a few people in the sartorial community influencing this choice and although I think this specific colour is something else, more of a reddish burgundy than purple as you often see, it’s a really nice and playful colour.

Suit

The details concerning this suit marks a whole new chapter. I’ve had my fair share of double breasted suits, but in Sando’s wardrobe 2.0, this is the first.

Jacket

The double breasted jacket features a 6x2 buttoning and patch pockets. The lapels are fairly wide, as one would expect from a double breasted jacket, and features more rounded shapes around the top and the belly. Also, the gorge and lapel is quite similar in width, definitely giving it more of a Neapolitan look than that of a British double breasted jacket. Which, again, of course is expected with Ring Jacket’s Tailoring.

The Neapolitan tailoring also comes to show with the spalla camicia shoulder, the lack of padding and the double lined stitching.

Although not visible, nor very important, I got very specific with the inside of the patch pockets. Adding a card pocket on one side and a phone pocket on the other.

I’m not a big fan of using the pockets on my jacket for heavier items and usually will put my phone in my trouser back pocket, but the convenience of having that pocket is still there. Almost the same goes for the card pocket, which I usually have on the inside. But given the double breasted nature of this jacket I opted to add it on the outside. Or rather inside on the outside.

Trousers

The trousers also marks a different direction, based on a different model than my previous suits. Most significantly, these have inwards pleats.

I know, what gives. Well, I wanted to try something new and although linen might not be the best trial fabric for inwards pleats, I don’t think these will be worn much as separates, thus making them a good contender for this new stylistic feature.

Aside from pleat changes, these have a taller waistband than the trousers based on the S-178 model, with side adjusters on the waistband as opposed to on the line between the waistband and the trouser fabric.

Specs

• Jacket No-296

  • Double Breasted 6x2

  • Double Stitching

  • Patch Pockets

  • 11 cm Lapels

  • Working Buttons

• Trouser S-182

  • Two Pleats / In Pleats

  • Side Adjusters

  • Rise 30cm

  • 6 cm Turn-ups