Matching Linen Jacket With Different Fabric Trousers - Match Linen With Cotton - Wool
- Synthetics
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be answering a question, "Can you match a linen jacket with trousers
of a different material?"
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right into this question.
A gentleman's asking, "Antonio, I love reading your style guide," which hopefully you know
I've got an awesome style guide over at the website, atailoredsuit.com.
"I have a question regarding a linen sports coat.
Basically, I purchased it and I'm trying to match it with trousers, so do I have to wear
it with linen pants or can I wear a pair of khakis with it or any type of cotton dress
pants?
Also, can I wear a cotton dress shirt underneath or should I wear a linen shirt with it?
Sincerely, Michael."
Okay, Michael, there is no rule that you have to wear the same type of fabrics altogether.
So if you have a linen jacket, you're not limited to linen shirts or linen trousers.
You can match pretty much any other type of fabric, and I like that look.
It adds a bit of texture.
Linen's a very casual fabric and the reason being is it uses usually a thicker weave when
you get down to the yarns that are used to make the fabric.
They're usually a bit larger, not as fine as you'll see in really high-end cottons.
Silk, one of the reasons silk has its sheen is not only the weave, but the fineness of
the yarn used to weave it.
Because it comes from a rougher plant material, you're using larger yarns.
And therefore, you get this basically thicker-looking weave that's very prone to wrinkle.
So because of that, linen is considered casual, but you can mix linen with cotton.
You can mix it with wool.
You can mix it with synthetics.
You can mix it with pretty much any other type of material used to make men's clothing.
Let's talk about a few of those options.
Linen, typically I'm thinking of something hot weather, so I'm going to be sticking with
that realm.
Now, a great option, probably one of the easiest for most men to match almost any type of linen
jacket is with a type of blue jean, so denim, basically going with a high-quality denim.
You can go something with a darker linen jacket that's going to look great going out at night
perhaps in New York City or Chicago.
Match it with a lighter colored denim jacket and that same look has a bit more contrast
and is more geared towards day wear.
Now, the problem with jeans or any type of denim is that usually it's got a heavier weight.
It's not as breathable.
There are lightweight denims out there that are made specifically for the summer and especially
in a lighter color with perhaps a lighter colored jacket if you don't have really strong
contrasting features.
It sounds like a great combination.
I have to actually see it to be able to tell you.
Another option, chinos or khakis.
"Chinos, khakis, what's the difference?"
I'm not going to go down that path too much, but basically chinos are less formal; khakis
are what you typically see guys try to wear at work made with usually a twill weave, less
room, breathable.
Let's focus on chinos because those are made with a lighter weave and typically, those
can be rolled up at the bottom.
I think they're a great summer wear especially if you get a good fit.
You can roll up the bottom that allow air movement and allow them to vent a bit, and
you can wear those with topsiders or any type of shoe that you can wear, in a sense, sockless
or look at a saddle shoe as well.
That right there would go great with a linen jacket, perhaps throw a cotton button-up shirt
with that, white or a lighter color.
That will give you a very airy, very nice feel.
Let's talk about tropical weight wools.
This is going to be dressier than any type of chino or khaki.
Tropical weight wool is typically what you see with a suit, although they're going to
be lighter weight.
Most suit fabrics we're talking about like this one right here, this is actually a flannel,
so it's not a great example, but this is like 13 to 14-ounce weight right there.
Tropical weights are going to be half of this, so around 7 ounces.
The great part about tropical wools is because they're lightweight, they're really loose,
a very nice drape, is they just glide along the skin and they just feel cooler even though
they don't always have as much breathability simply because that they're lightweight.
They're just going to allow you to -- and wool does a great job not only in cold weather,
but also hot weather.
A lot of people don't realize that, but wool will help keep you cool in hot weather as
well.
Synthetics, something that most guys -- and for a good reason -- stay away from, but there
are some good ones out there and you need to know what to look for.
I always like to look at the weave of the synthetic and look at the brand that it's
coming from.
I just found a great pair of synthetic trousers.
It was in Austin, Texas.
I needed a pair of lightweight trousers.
I went to, I think it was Macy's, and because I knew exactly what size to look at, I had
a tape measure with me -- actually, I only had it because I asked the sales clerk for
that tape measure, so that's a quick tip there, always ask for it.
I knew what my size was, grabbed this pair of Perry Ellis.
It had supposedly a matching jacket with that.
I didn’t need the jacket.
I just wanted those trousers.
I measured, they looked great.
I took them into the fitting room.
Things fit perfectly, bottom, right there, and these trousers were awesome.
They were 100% synthetic, but I looked at the weave.
I felt how they felt on me in the fitting room and I knew I could pull these off.
It didn’t matter that it was going to be 95 degrees and humid outside.
These things were going to work great.
That brought up a trick to keep trousers cooler in the summer.
Again, we're talking about linen.
Make sure they're brought up a little bit so you, again, get a little bit of air movement
down around the bottom of your leg.
So that hopefully answers your question about what type of fabrics you can wear with linen
jackets.
And whenever you're out shopping, you may find a linen jacket that comes with a matching
pair of linen trousers.
That's a linen suit.
The definition of a suit is a jacket and trousers that are made from the same material, so technically
there are denim suits out there and polyester suits, but a linen suit is perfectly fine.
You may actually find it's not too much -- oftentimes, they'll discount it when you buy them together
versus if you buy them separate, so the advantage there is you're going to get two discounted
pieces of clothing that you can actually wear as separates.
Linen is a bit more resistant than wool to fading.
A lot of times, I'll tell someone when they only own one suit that they don't want to
wear them as separates especially if you've only got one pair of trousers and one jacket
because you never want to have an orphan jacket.
That's just not the way you want to go, but if you're getting a linen suit, you probably
already own a business suit, if not a few other suits, so this is a case where you can
actually wear those separates.
Someone can send me the question, "How do I match my linen trousers?"
Linen trousers are really nice.
Again, the thing with linen, wrinkles, but if you don't mind putting up with that, it's
a great summer wear.
Hopefully I answered the question.
If you guys have anymore questions, you know where to go, mensstyleqa.com.
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ask it.
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Okay.
I will see you guys in the next video.
Bye-bye.