summer Fabrics
From a layman’s point of view
If there’s one thing that has become abundantly clear to me while maneuvering through all the aspects of the sartorial world in a country with properly defined seasons, it’s the importance of fabrics and the properties the different ones hold.
In my Scandinavian home country we pride ourselves with having four seasons, but honestly, its 14°C and raining sideways 300 days a year. As for summer, yes, we have one day of summer each year.
Backstory
So my experience with fabrics prior to Japan, when it comes to suits and sports coats, was next to nothing. To some extent generic I would say, but honestly looking back at what usually was available I don’t see why anyone would bother buy a $600 suit over an H&M suit when the only thing separating them is the brand (granted either one are wool). Fused, fully polyester lined, (worsted wool), weight unknown and probably sleeves that are too long was the norm.
But I should say it wasn’t so much ignorance as a lack of importance that drove this lackluster approach to suiting.
(our one day of summer)
In a humid climate like Japan the importance of having tailored wear dedicated to each season, and specific parts of a season, like mid summer, is essential.
It’s not really anything new for the sartorially knowledgeable gentleman; you’ll see countless articles advising you to get linen or cotton, gabardine and seersucker, and of course hopsack and fresco to mention a few options.
Of course there’s no accounting for personal taste or the fact that different people have completely contrasting experiences with certain fabrics in certain climates.
Being particularly prone to “overheating”, I’ve had to learn all this the hard way.
Throughout the process of learning more about fabrics and other aspects of tailored wear it’s been interesting to think back on what I knew, or rather didn’t know compared to where I am now.
It’s not just about knowing what a suitable fabric and weave for summer is, minor difference in percentage of wool and linen makes a huge difference and in the end knowing what was right for me, and is right for you is something that comes down to experience and trial (and failure).
Just for fun, I’ll summarise the stages I went through the two former years before I actually got serious about the matter;
My sauna like experience throughout the summer wearing fully lined Hugo Boss suits.
I’m not specifying Hugo Boss as some illicit attempt to brag (and to be honest, my position now is that it’s definitely the opposite), but it seems I’m not alone in having the opinion that Hugo Boss suits, regardless of the cloth, always seem rather stiff.
Understanding that half-lined was the way to go, but still experiencing near death heat attacks.
(I don’t think half-lined is even a concept where I come from, if so it’s kept a well hidden secret)
Thinking a light fabric would do the trick, thus procuring a handful of half-lined suits in light weight fabrics.
To be honest, this actually helped a whole lot but then came July and August.
To be fair, you’re not really expected to wear jackets in the aforementioned months, so my quest to find solutions is simply because I want to, not because I must.
Secondly, I tend to bring my jacket along, whether it being an odd jacket or I’m wearing a suit, and I’ll put it on inside where there’s air conditioning, or later on as the evening comes around.
In any case, my need for jackets whether the odd one or for suits is there and I think I’ve finally come close to what works for me.
So, the story up until now in this article was my experience up until last years summer more or less. The suits and jackets I owned and bought around that time (some of which I still own) were decent enough and even if I reckon quite a few soon must go they were an important part of the learning process.
In any case, by the start of last years I’d managed to gather my thoughts, read up and do some research and had mapped out what I wanted to explore for this summer.
Weave over Weight
There’s no way around this for me. No matter the weight, if it’s wool and a tightly woven cloth I will struggle. For instance, out of all the suits I’ve worn during summer in Japan with fabrics around 230-260g, in other words considerably light, only the Classic Mohairs cloth from Holland & Sherry has stood the test. The rest feels insulating in the heat.
And on the other hand, most of the high-twist wools are quite heavy but still way easier to wear than say my Estrato suit, in which the fabric is 240g.
In spite of this realisation, my first custom order suit from Ring Jacket was the aforementioned suit which was made with a light fabric, but at least a plain weave and not as tight as the others prior.
You can see an example of the difference between the Holland & Sherry and Trabaldo Togna in the images below
Although I did quite a bit of research on the fabric, I might have been lucky that it turned out to be wearable even for me.
Weave over weight is also true with regards to the humidity, which almost seem to target you from the inside and out. As if the sun (in this case the outside heat source) wasn’t enough, Japan’s humidity really does get the better of you. It feels like walking around in a steam shower with a big halogen lamp just above your head.
After wearing quite a selection of different weaves while enduring days with either one, some or all the elements; sun, heat and humidity (and the humidity when it’s raining) my experience tells me that high-twists is the only way to go.
As a testament to that my Balloon Fresco jacket has been a blessing and when paired with Fresco lite trousers I feel invincible (this statement might come back to haunt me).
Like I stated earlier, this all comes down to personal preferences. While some of my friends could easily wear a three-piece suit without a sweat, some days I might as well be naked and still struggle. As such, this is all a personal opinion as to how I can cope and maybe this applies to you as well?
So essentially this leads me to what I had intended to write about, which will become part II, part III and part IV.
For the three next parts accumulating in a comparison of Fresco lite, Balloon Fresco, Crispaire and Fox Air, I will have a look at the different summer cloths I’ve come to know.
Unfortunately I’m leaving out “regular” Fresco as I found the other options seemed better suited for Japan and either way, it’s quite a lot heavier than the other four so it might not be such an appropriate comparison after all?
In part II and III I’m comparing jackets with the different mixed cloths used for jacketing; wool, silk, linen, cotton and cashmere.
I’ve had great success with these so far, granted, some better than others, so looking into the percentage of each of the fibers and how that affects comfort and how wearable the jackets are in hot weather should be interesting.
