Spring and Summer Fabrics

Sporting the right fabrics for the right season will make a tremendous difference in your comfort level. Wearing shorts and a t-shirt isn’t the only way to stay cool during the hot months (and it certainly isn’t the best looking). In fact, making a few wise fabric choices will keep you looking and feeling fresh even if you decide a full suit will be your theme for the day.

There is virtually no limit to the things you can make fabric from. Bamboo, bananas, and even used coffee grounds have become fabric options in recent years. I could write a long drawn out article that would include even the most obscure and unique warm weather fabrics but for today we’ll just be sticking with the basics. You will find that several of these fabrics are actually just cotton or wool at their core. They’re given a new name once woven into their final form to help differentiate themselves from their base fabric.

Linen

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The featherweight champion of light, open, breathable fabrics that will help keep you cool in the most blazin’ of temps. Linen is often thought of as the quintessential hot weather fabric.

Something to know: linen has very low elasticity. The fibers won’t spring back into place once bent, meaning its naturally prone to wrinkling and this makes it one of the most casual of fabrics. I recommend saving your full/majority linen suits for less formal occasions and keeping them out of the office due to this.

A great way to still benefit from linen if you’re concerned about it’s wrinkly or casual nature is to buy or custom order garments that are a linen blend instead of 100% linen. They might 20% linen and 80% cotton, 50% linen and 50% wool, or some other linen blend entirely. This will give you some of the breathability of linen while also mitigating the wrinkle factor.

Cotton

If wool is the king of men’s suiting fabrics, than cotton is probably the king of everything else. 75% of the world’s clothing includes at least some cotton so you will have no trouble adding this light, breathable fabric to your warm weather wardrobe. You can find anything in cotton from pants to shirts to socks to full suits and even… potato chips?

As a suit fabric, cotton can certainly help you keep cool in the summer. Bear in mind that, like linen, cotton fibers aren’t as flexible as wool so it will wrinkle a bit more easily and is therefore more casual, but you can probably still wear cotton suits to the office. Just be sure to use a steamer or hang them in the bathroom while you shower so the crinkles can work themselves out!

Cotton chinos are also a great choice for spring and summer. However, it seems that in a world where “business casual” implies khakis and a polo, many people view chinos as being too formal for every day wear. On the contrary, khakis and chinos are casual garments at their core. They are a lighter and more comfortable option than thick heavy denim. Chinos are my go-to casual trouser when it comes to wearing long pants in the heat.

Silk

Silk may seem like an interesting inclusion on this list but it deserves it’s place. It has a tendency to adjust to the wearer’s body temperature which actually makes it a versatile fabric for wear year round- keeping you cool in the summer or warm in the winter.

There are some important considerations to keep in mind when deciding to don silk in the heat. The reason I’ve included it is because its an incredibly light fabric. Things to be aware of though: it will stain easily, making it not so ideal if its humid outside or if you’re prone to sweating. And unlike many of the options on this list, silk is not breathable.

Overall, I don’t really recommend wearing any 100% silk garments. Like linen, you may want to make an effort to find garments that are some form of silk blend. Also, I apologize for not posting an example of a silk shirt or something you could tell was primarily silk just by looking at it. There doesn’t appear to be pictures online of silk shirts that aren’t absolute gaudy monstrosities or otherwise just cheap examples.

Chambray

Base fabric: Cotton
AKA the “summer denim.” Like denim, chambray is traditionally made from indigo and white cotton yarns. The difference lies in how its woven. Chambray is woven in a plain weave, making it thinner and softer than its big brother denim.

An easy way to differentiate chambray from denim is if the fabric is the same shade of color on the inside of the garment as the outside. You’ll typically find chambray in lighter shades of blue than denim but a lighter shade on its own is by no means a definitive confirmation that a fabric is chambray.

Hopsack

Base fabric: Wool
Wool comes in many forms other than the merino sweaters and heavier tweeds known for their warmth. Hopsack is woven into a basket weave texture, creating an open weave and presenting a course look. Your body heat will escape right through it making it perfect in the warm months.

One of the best advantages of hopsack? Its incredibly wrinkle resistant. You could probably go to bed in a hopsack suit and wake up in the morning wrinkle free (but try that at your own risk).

Be cautious of your surroundings though. The very open weave makes hopsack prone to snagging.

Seersucker

Base fabric: Cotton
Few fabrics will help you beat the heat better than seersucker. What makes it unique is its natural lumpiness which is often described as puckering. The puckering is caused when individual warp yarns (the vertical yarns in a fabric) are pulled more tightly than others during the weaving. This is known as a slack-tension weave. There seems to be some consensus that this weave helps the fabric float away from the body, facilitating air flow and heat dispersion. Whether this point is specifically true or not, there is no doubt that seersucker will do a superior job in keeping you from overheating.

We can find seersucker in a variety of forms but the most classic and commonly thought of is blue and white striped. The bold stripes combined with the nature of the fabric and weave should make it obvious that seersucker is about as casual as it gets. This is a no-no for office and traditional formal wear.

Conclusion

There’s no reason to stop wearing long sleeve shirts, trousers, or suits just because its starting to get hot outside. Pay attention to the fabrics you’re putting on your body and you’ll find you can keep up your well dressed practices while also beating the heat. What are your favorite warm weather fabrics?