Shoulder Season is for Worsteds

Well, here we are in shoulder season, that time when midweight (10-12 ounce / 300 - 360 gram) worsteds come into their own. Midweight cloth is considered ten month suiting, meaning it can be worn most of the year, and that makes it the heart of contemporary wardrobes. Ask a tailor for a ten month suit and more likely than not those are the books you will be pointed to.

It was not all that long ago that 13 ounce (400 gram) suitings were the heart of those same wardrobes, particularly in London where summer temperatures are about ten degrees (F) cooler than they are in New York. That makes heavier cloth tolerable later into the season there but really it is a seven or eight month weight in either place, being a bit too sweat-inducing when temperatures hit 70 (21 C) or so. But I digress.

When choosing any type of cloth, the best approach in my opinion is to look for designs that typify the type of weave and the best worsted patterns are pin or rope stripes as well as nailheads and birdseyes. Glen checks are better executed as a woolen in my opinion but an under-appreciated relation is the subtle box check, worn in the photograph by style icon Luca Montezemolo whom we have not seen much of lately here on ASW.

Shoulder season is for worsteds.