Lighten Up, Pal
Asummer suit is an extravagance, but not because it is an outrageously expensive item. Traditional hot weather suits in poplin or seersucker are relatively inexpensive. They are a luxury simply because they are not a necessity.
Modern conveniences have virtually eliminated the need for wardrobes specific to a single season. We live air-conditioned lives. We sweat minimally.
In fact, most of the clothes men buy are “tilted more toward warm weather than cool,” says Alan Flusser, author of “Style and the Man.” “The reality is that even in September and October, it’s still like summer weather. . . . People tend to wear tropical weights much longer than they were originally intended.”
Still, there is great satisfaction in sliding out of a wool, single-breasted suit--even if it is a tropical weight--and slipping into something light as a feather, crisp, cool and undeniably for-summer-only.
Just as every woman has a personal way of dealing with the arrival of summer in her workday life, so do most men. In the Mid-Atlantic region, seersucker and Brooks Brothers poplin are the harbingers of the season.
Even the few who swear by Gucci and Prada during the colder months embrace the simplicity and frugality of the poplin suit for summer.
“For summer, I’m not into buying big-ticket items,” says Dunham McElroy of Washington, D.C., who, aside from succumbing to the allure of a couple pair of Prada shorts and a few other trinkets, generally eschews pricey designer summer clothes.
“I like the Brooks Brothers poplin suit,” he says. “It doesn’t weigh much and it breathes.” You can walk down a busy city street at noon, he says, “and you’ll see everyone in this uniform; but still, it’s great. And it’s not an investment at all.”
That traditional suit--a cotton and polyester blend--sells for $228; the high-tech version with spandex costs $298.
Seersucker, originally used in the South for work garments, lost its laborer image when it was adopted by college men, the Prince of Wales--natch--and the resort crowd during the 1930s, according to Farid Chenoune’s “A History of Men’s Fashion.”
Style arbiters of that time even pronounced seersucker appropriate for the men of Wall Street on the steamier summer days. The beauty of seersucker, a descendant of a type of Persian cloth, is that it’s already wrinkled.
Of course, all of this quiet agreement on the proper summer business attire leaves downtown business districts looking as though they were populated by an army of clones.
A poplin suit or a seersucker one, by its very nature, is not as dressy as a dark, wool-crepe uniform. Rep ties are not required, nor are formal, starched white shirts. “With a light-colored suit, you can’t force it into being dressier,” Flusser says. So gentlemen, stop trying.
These more casual suits beg for whimsically colored shirts, offbeat ties (but please, no novelty Grateful Dead four-in-hands) and knits with interesting textures.
Designers can’t resist the challenge of creating a suit just for those 90-degree days. And so they bring out their pricier versions of khaki suits, their jackets and trousers in crisp linen, the latest rendition of the traditional seersucker ensemble.
Their suits for summer are more lighthearted--bright checks, unusual colors. There is more daring and experimentation with accessories such as pastel shirts with matching ties or earthy sandals for when more serious loafers are not required.
Hugo Boss offers lightweight wools in dusty blue glen plaids and tattersall check, three-button suits. Mossimo features roomy, four-button suits with notched lapels of the latter-day “Miami Vice” variety. Ralph Lauren lightens up his navy pinstripe suit by substituting pale green for the classically white stripes. And Donna Karan continues trying to convince men of the pleasures of linen--unsuccessfully, it seems.
“I love women in linen,” McElroy says. “It’s a very sexy fabric. . . . On a man it’s sexy, but in a feminine way.”
And for any man trying to maintain a crisp look--at least until lunchtime--linen is taboo. Quips Hal Rubenstein in “Paisley Goes With Nothing”: “Linen is for remaining totally cool while looking fabulously careless. However, you can sustain the effect over long periods only if you never sit down. In fact, avoid leaning, reaching and turning too quickly. Better yet, find a convenient wall, with flattering lighting, and don’t move.” Summer provides a reprieve from inhibitions and constraints. Experiment. Breathe easy. But, please, do not even consider a Good-Humor-man white suit.
