Your thoughts on linen?

[GrainReaper]

I LOVE linen..... I have a few really nice linen shirts that see a lot of use all summer long, it just makes sense as Jock noted to use ones head when dressing for the weather.

[ShaunMaxwell]

I recall Jack Daw having a linen kilt jacket... In fact I think Matt Newsome used to sell them through th STM gift shop when he was running things there.

It is very smart looking. Perhaps Jack Daw will post a photo...

[Mikilt]

For the often hot and humid summers in Chicago, I converted a seersucker jacket.

[neloon]

Since the Scots Gaelic word for "shirt" is "leine", cognate with "linen" in pretty well all European languages, I think we can safely say a linen shirt is traditional.
Alan

[Spartan Tartan]

You look great. I Would wear linen and cotton any day...especially if it was more comfortable. My only issue with linen is wearing it WITHOUT a best...I can never keep it from wrinkling so much that it looks disheveled. The vest helps maintain the sharp appearance.

Nice outfit.

[Jock Scot]

There was a time when linen suits were all the rage and any one who knows linen will know the "crumpled look" and it was considered fashionable and possibly a sign of fairly deep pockets. If however one casts aside all that nonsense, linen clothes in my humble opinion are one of the best hot weather options available.

[Hipbilly]

Well that's a resoundingly positive response!
Thanks all, for the compliments.
I like the shirt a lot (even without the vest); it has double bellows pockets, and more squarely shaped collars.
Its definitely crumply, but I like it.

[Jack Daw]

I have one linen kilt jacket that I wear several times during the spring and summer:

[Tenmiles]

... "leine", cognate with "linen"...

Is it? I never realized that before. Thanks for the tip!

[Pleater]

Linen was a common fabric for centuries, grown in the British Isles and with small factories set up to process the fibre and produce cloth. My father's family in Barnsley South Yorkshire worked at the linen weaving, and there were farmers who could have grown the flax. The census records of the 1800's reveal that there were linen bleachers, hand loom weavers, and then an apprentice engineer, an engine stoker and 'engine driver' of a stationary engine providing the power to drive the looms in the linen mills. I am just listening to a program on TV 'Who do you think you are?' and it is about Jeremy Irons - they are just researching his ancestors involved in the Irish linen trade.

My mother, married in 1951 was given wedding presents of household goods made of linen - she listed them in her diary and carefully noted if they were cotton or linen. It was difficult to get hold of British made goods as we were still paying for the war and there was a huge export drive right up to the mid 50s. There was still rationing up until 1954. By then the English linen trade had gone, but Ireland was still producing and it was regarded as a luxury fabric by then. Manchester - 'Cottonopolis' as it was called was still producing tons of cotton cloth, but it was a relatively recent introduction and a rather out of place industry, importing all its raw material and exporting much of its output. Linen and canvas are the natural products of these islands. A fabric which was a mixture of the two was common as it doesn't crease like pure linen.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: