Every summer, a great many people buy a linen shirt, wear it once to a wedding, look at the photographs and quietly retire it. The creases, the transparency, the strange way it seems to change shape in the wash. Linen has a reputation for being difficult, but most of its problems come from buying the wrong kind, washing it badly or expecting it to behave like cotton. Understood properly, it is the most comfortable fabric you can wear in hot weather.
Start with the fibre. Linen is spun from the stalks of the flax plant, which grows best in the cool, damp climates of northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. European flax produces long, strong fibres that make smoother and more durable yarn, while cheaper linen often relies on shorter fibres that pill and tear more readily. A good label will tell you where the flax was grown, and it is worth paying attention.
Weight, weave and wrinkles
Weight matters more than most people realise. Shirting linen under one hundred and fifty grams per square metre is cool but can be sheer and fragile. Mid-weight cloth, roughly between one hundred and eighty and two hundred and forty grams, is the sweet spot for shirts and dresses: opaque in daylight and robust enough to last for years. Heavier linen, used for trousers and jackets, holds its shape surprisingly well and softens beautifully.
Then there are the wrinkles. They are not a flaw but a feature, and the sooner you accept them the happier you will be. The trick is to encourage soft, rumpled creases rather than sharp, papery folds. Buy linen that has been pre-washed or garment-dyed, which relaxes the fibres. Hang it to dry instead of tumbling it, and give it a firm shake while damp. If you must iron, do it while the cloth is still slightly wet.
Hendrik Liesveld, whose family has run a small weaving mill in West Flanders for four generations, recommends washing new linen several times before wearing it seriously. Each wash softens the fibre and reduces later shrinkage. He also advises against fabric softener, which coats the yarn and dulls its natural lustre. A cool machine cycle with a mild detergent, he says, is all that good linen will ever need.
Linen should look like it has enjoyed a long lunch, not survived a hard day. — Hendrik Liesveld
Styling is simpler than it looks. Linen is at its best in relaxed shapes: a boxy shirt, wide trousers, a loose shift dress. Close tailoring fights the fabric's natural tendency to move. Colours that echo its origins, such as oatmeal, stone, faded blue, olive and ecru, age well as the cloth softens, while stark white can look a little clinical until it has been through a dozen washes.
Finally, be patient. Linen improves with age more than almost any other fabric, growing softer, more fluid and more personal with every summer. The shirt that felt stiff and awkward in June will feel like a second skin by August and an old friend in five years' time. Keep it, mend it when it frays at the collar, and resist the temptation to replace it.
