It was nearly 90 degrees Farenheit (32C) in San Francisco yesterday, a temperature made worse in a city without much air conditioning, and my thoughts turned to shirts that can stand the heat. So I spent a pleasant half hour talking about cotton voile with visiting shirtmaker Joe Hemrajani.
Voile is a light, gauzy shirting fabric that breathes, making it almost like wearing nothing at all. And of course that's also the problem as it's almost transparent, so the wearer has to choose between exposing his chest -- not always a pretty or appropriate sight -- or wearing an undershirt that defeats the purpose of the exercise. But there are a couple of ways to ameliorate this.
For example, voile has long been used to make the back and sleeves of a formal shirt with collar, cuffs and shirt front made of pique (like the Robert Talbott shirt in the photo) or some other opaque material. That makes for a shirt that wears relatively cool without the problems of voile alone, but it's a strategy that works best for white shirts. Unfortunately, I was hoping to follow this strategy for regular dress shirts and, as you might expect, the dye lots are different from one fabric to another. Indeed, Joe and I looked at swatches for a while before concluding that we were not going to find identical blues for a colored shirt (it may be easier to find two complementary colors altogether but this didn't occur to me until later in the day).
Another common approach to voile modesty is to double the cloth on the front of a dress shirt, an approach I've ruled out as my English shirtmaker's version was prone to bubbling.
The final approach, and the one I elected to try, involves a relatively new double twisted cloth from the Italian mill Tessitura Monti. Twisting Egyptian cotton produces a voile that's a shirting version of fresco suiting. It's wrinkle resistant, allows plenty of air flow, and, in blue, looks likely to preserve the wearer's modesty. If such can be extrapolated from a swatch.
I'll let you know how it stands the heat in about eight weeks, if we still have any. Heat, that is.
Voile is a light, gauzy shirting fabric that breathes, making it almost like wearing nothing at all. And of course that's also the problem as it's almost transparent, so the wearer has to choose between exposing his chest -- not always a pretty or appropriate sight -- or wearing an undershirt that defeats the purpose of the exercise. But there are a couple of ways to ameliorate this.
For example, voile has long been used to make the back and sleeves of a formal shirt with collar, cuffs and shirt front made of pique (like the Robert Talbott shirt in the photo) or some other opaque material. That makes for a shirt that wears relatively cool without the problems of voile alone, but it's a strategy that works best for white shirts. Unfortunately, I was hoping to follow this strategy for regular dress shirts and, as you might expect, the dye lots are different from one fabric to another. Indeed, Joe and I looked at swatches for a while before concluding that we were not going to find identical blues for a colored shirt (it may be easier to find two complementary colors altogether but this didn't occur to me until later in the day).
Another common approach to voile modesty is to double the cloth on the front of a dress shirt, an approach I've ruled out as my English shirtmaker's version was prone to bubbling.
The final approach, and the one I elected to try, involves a relatively new double twisted cloth from the Italian mill Tessitura Monti. Twisting Egyptian cotton produces a voile that's a shirting version of fresco suiting. It's wrinkle resistant, allows plenty of air flow, and, in blue, looks likely to preserve the wearer's modesty. If such can be extrapolated from a swatch.
I'll let you know how it stands the heat in about eight weeks, if we still have any. Heat, that is.
5 comments:
90 degrees in San Francisco??? My condolences and best of luck in staying cool. I took your advice you had given me a few weeks back and ordered a couple of shirts in voile with the front panels doubled up. No problems to date, but I have only worn them once. I shall be on the lookout for that particular problem.
I experimented with voile shirts about 35 years ago and encountered all the same issues you’ve described. I prefer omitting t-shirts for a variety of reasons. An additional issue was the weight of my double cuffs and cuff links relative to the almost weightless voile; while unnoticeable normally, they felt like boat anchors when attached to voile sleeves. I hope you fair better with your experiments, and look forward to learning of the results.
Will...amazed at an excellent detail of men's shirtings-but even more amazed at the lack of air-conditioning in San Francisco! I remember it suffocating...
Voile is a great summer shirt fabric. It breathes! It is a must with traditional summer suitings because elegant summer suits can't be expected to be mobile air-conditioning units while wearing heavier shirts.
Tough call on those who have hairy chests, but gentlemen should never have to take their jackets. Maybe that's the whole point of voile? Light enough to keep your jacket on while others sweat their guts out.
I have seen other shirt fabrics lighter than voile. Transparent , but so fragile that you may get only a few wearings and so expensive that your shirt will cost around 400 euro or roughly 520 USD. A bit steep for mere mortals.
These high-twist fabrics sound interesting. Do you know what name or range number is?
Thanks.
Of course, the problem in DC is that the hotter it is outside, the more we ramp up the AC.
The coldest I've ever been in DC is wearing a fine broadcloth shirt on in immensely hot day.
-DC Lawyer
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