Hot Weather Suits – Linen vs. Seersucker
Who turned the heat up on the planet? The entire Northern Hemisphere feels like Mother Nature bumped the knob on her oven to “broil.” It’s summer, it’s hot, and yet that’s no excuse to not wear a suit. You just need to make sure it’s a suit that’s made to reflect the suns rays, all while letting your body heat escape through a breathable fiber. Make the right choice and you’ll be more comfortable and look better than most.
Now is it really possible to wear long sleeves and pants and not die of heatstroke? Of course. Just look at the Tuareg tribes who have been living in the Sahara forever. You don’t see many of them walking around in tank tops and cargo shorts. You’ve got two real options when it comes to suits for blistering hot summer days. Here they are…
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Linen Suits – J. Crew Ludlow $386.00 | INC Cotton/Linen Suit – $100.00
Linen breathes like no other. Wearing a pure cotton suit is a step up from wool, but a linen or linen cotton blend suit is an upgrade from that. They wrinkle like all hell, but that’s more than acceptable. The J. Crew Ludlow is obviously the much higher quality of the two and the fit is perfect. The INC Cotton Linen is still available at Macy’s at a ridiculously low price. For all the guys who earlier this year thought that maybe a pure-white INC linen suit might be too much? If it’s now over 100 degrees every day where you live… that might no longer be an issue.
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Brooks Brothers Fitz. Seersucker – $238.00 (reg. 398) | Jos. A Bank Seersucker – $199.99
Seersucker is superior to a flat cotton fabric for hot weather because the stripes in seersucker are raised. The space between each stripe allows for the fabric to sit higher up on your skin, causing the air to circulate more freely between you and your suit. Is seersucker a little dandyish? Yeah, but it’s really hot. And seersucker works.
The Brooks Brothers Fitzgerald line is their slimmest, with narrow lapels and thankfully higher arm holes. The seersucker suit from Jos. A Bank is unusually modern looking for that brand. It’s widely available in four different color options, the silhouette doesn’t look half bad,and at $200 it’s affordable. Maybe consider sizing down in the jacket just in case it shows up and it’s a little big.
Good luck staying cool this summer. And for God sakes if you do choose to go the “it’s just so damn hot I think I’ll run naked behind this here news reporter” route… have the common decency to wear a ski mask: