The much lower cost of cotton has replaced it in price-sensitive applications but the most important fabric other than wool for men's tailored clothing is undoubtedly linen, particularly Irish linen.
Linen is best known as a warm weather cloth. It is highly absorbent and dries quickly so that it removes perspiration from the skin, which keeps it cooler to the touch than other fabrics. That made it ideal for undergarments like shirts which were once made almost exclusively out of linen, and that is of course the reason they are still referred to generically as linens.
The source of linen is the cultivated flax plant, named Linum usitatissimum. It was most likely the first plant fiber used for making textiles - according to the Irish Linen Center Museuem, linen cloth has been found that dates to 8,000 BC.
The very best linen is generally considered to come from Ireland, where the stuff has been produced in volume for more than 3,000 years. As recently as 1921 some 40% of Northern Ireland's registered working population was dependant on the linen industry, so there is an extraordinary amount of accumulated linen expertise in that country. But flax requires a great deal of attention to grow and the thread is difficult to weave making the cloth more expensive than most and this has led to a significant decline in its production.
Today linen is produced in relatively small quantities with most of it going for apparel. Its relative stiffness makes it ideal for matte pocket squares and it is also used for loosely woven knitwear as well as suitings.
In tailored clothing applications, linen is recognized for its creasing and rumpling. Lightweight linen tends to crease, and the heavier stuff (14 ounce/420 gram cloth) rumples which looks considerably better after an hour or two. Very particular men have been known to change linen suits at mid-day, something that is rather hard to do in an office. But the cream linen suit, like the one that belonged to the late Duke of Windsor in the photo, still has an allure that is duplicated by few other garments.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Little About Linen
Photo: Kerry Taylor Auctions
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8 comments:
Did that suit belong to the Duchess? As someone has noticed before in this blog, that coat bears a lady buttoning. Should that image be inverted, then the chest pocket has been placed on the wrong side. I once wrote to the auctioning house which actually made the picture and sold that garment asking about further details of that coat, but - alas - I did not ever get a reply. Perhaps the successful bidder will one day be kind enough to share further pictures of it with us.
It is a DB so it can be buttoned to either side.
In my opinion, the person staging the photo just buttoned it backwards.
That's a smashing suit. If I can manage to get back to the Southland from the infernal, snowbound Midwest, I'll have an opportunity to wear a suit like that (well, more or less like that).
Yes, there are indeed some photos of the Duke's in Nassau in the 40's with what seems to be the very same suit - and of course with the right buttoning.
Will, do you think the linen for suitings from Italian sources that seems to be taking a run at market share fails substantially to compare favorably to the Irish sources?
on business side it is very difficult for factories to obtain linen today. the biggest spinners in Europe are closing. we are producing linen socks and during the last 3 seasons we had a great business, people are loving it, but it is more and more difficult to have the yarn.
Not a bad word about Irish linen, but Belgium must also be named among the top quality producing countries. Much of the stuff is high quality table and bed linen (The guy at Busatti in Florence told me they get much of their linen from Belgium) but there is also a sizable production of linen apparel in Belgium.
My second comment is that good quality hemp seems quite similar to linen. I have a great Zegna jacket that is 35% hemp. This material is reported to be very environmentally friendly. Perhaps a comparison of linen and hemp can be taken up at in a future post?
I would assume the lining and the canvas in a linen jacket would negate the desirable warm-weather characteristics of a linen jacket. Are most linen jackets constructed the same way as their woolen brethren or is it possible to construct a well fitting, nicely draping unlined linen jacket as well?
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