It’s Getting Hot in Herre (So Hot)
So put on a sport coat
With temperatures rising, I get a lot of questions about wearing casual sport coats through the late spring and into summer. If most of your experience with tailored jackets is in the form of tweedy sport coats and wool suits, it makes sense to think of them as far too hot and stuffy for the spring and summer.
There are plenty of options that won’t leave you overheated and uncomfortable, if you look for the right fabrics and constructions. Linen and lightweight wools are my choice. Getting something with a silk blended in is also nice. Cotton will often show up on warm weather lists, and while it can work, cotton weaves tend to be tighter and don’t breathe nearly as well as a linen or even a high twist wool (yes, wool).
As far as construction goes, linings are an extra layer of fabric and are going to be hot. At the minimum, quarter-lining for the jacket, but unlined is even lighter. Lined sleeves are less of a big deal. They make slipping into and out of the jacket a bit easier but don’t add too much in the way of heat. Most of these jackets will also lack canvasing, this will decrease the weight and give the jacket less structure, making them more casual by nature.
Onward.
What to get
If you’re interested in wearing a sport coat or blazer casually throughout the warmer months, I think this is a place worth spending some money. That doesn’t mean I’m recommending a $3000 Cuncinelli blazer (while beautiful, you’re paying more for brand than product with that), but spending somewhere around $1000 to $1500 will get you a jacket made of the right materials, that will fit you beautifully, and will last for years to come.
I am hard pressed to pick only one jacket—I’m not sure that it would be possible to pick only one—so instead I’m going to give you a handful of choices. Perhaps surprisingly, the first two are wool.
For a traditional sport coat, I think Ring Jacket’s exclusive Balloon fabric sport coats for The Armoury are excellent. While you can get a versatile Model 3 in classic navy, I think that something like the Model 12 in olive balloon (above) is a bit more exciting.
If you’re looking for a classic navy blazer (sport coats and blazers are different things), the much-talked about Sid Mashburn Ghost Blazer (on Sid himself above) in navy high twist lives up to its spectral naming. Unlined and unstructured and with the Ivy twist of brass buttons, for me this is a four season jacket that shines when the temperatures rise. Mashburn has been doing more adventurous colors and patterns in the Ghost if you feel so inclined, but if this is your first sport coat, or one you expect to wear often, make it navy.
The other major option for lightweight jackets is probably what you were expecting: linen. You have two options with linen: Italian and Irish. Irish linens tend to be heavier than their Italian counterparts. This means they look a bit sharper and while the wrinkles are larger, they’re softer and more consistent over the whole garment. Italian linen, being finer, will crease more than wrinkle, but you save some weight in the garment overall.
J.Mueser makes my favorite linen suits and jackets. For the reasonable price of $1650 you can have a beautiful Campania Jacket made for you. The 3/2 roll, patch pockets, and uncanvased nature make it a perfect casual jacket. I’m loving wearing my olive green Campania suit this spring. If getting to NYC to get a jacket made by Jake Mueser isn’t in the budget, Buck Mason teamed up with J.Mueser for an excellent line of suits that might be easier to get access to. I’m partial to this golden brown Irish linen double breasted, especially as a suit.
Another shout out to The Armoury for their more casual sport coat cuts. The Model 7 and Model 11 would both be great for the warmer seasons.
I want to make brief mention of sport coats with linen/silk/cotton blends. These are also perfectly acceptable, and in many cases, excellent, options for fabrics. As with all clothes, I encourage you to get your hands on as many of these things as you can.
I know that these sport coats and blazers are all priced over $1000. I think that a jacket like this can get a lot more wear than just twice a season, and I advocate for trying to wear it often—maybe once or twice a week if you can. Above are the best jackets that I can recommend, but if that price is too high (no worries) here are a few other options, with some caveats.
You’ll see cotton twills and poplins often in Spring/Summer lookbooks, and while these can be good, both of these weaves tend to be tighter and thus restrict airflow. And that is what you need when it is warm: A I R F L O W.
Todd Snyder, Buck Mason, and Suit Supply all have some options between $500 and $1000. They’re all good, but not great, and if this is indeed something you plan to wear often, you’ll get your money’s worth out of saving for one of the jackets in the section above.
If you’re interested in a warm weather layer but have less to spend, I think the better move is to get one of my favorite garments: a chore coat. Linen chore coats are fantastic for the spring and summer. They elevate chinos—or even shorts—and a tee shirt, and work very well to complement an Oxford and chinos in a business casual situation, perhaps with or without a knit tie. Here’s a smattering to pick from:
Sid Mashburn for $425 (pricey but worth it)
Le Laboureur for $178 (I wish this came in more colors)
3Sixteen for $245 (a freakin’ great price)
Portuguese Flannel for $240 (olive is my favorite general purpose color)
Gap for $54 right now (this is a great amount of money to spend if you’re trying to figure out if you like chore coats)
Don’t forget to set alerts for my favorite chore coat from Drake’s (not the beefing rapper), on Grailed.
But what about seersucker?
I am a big fan of seersucker for sport coats and suits. Sid Mashburn calls seersucker wearing “built-in AC” and I agree so much that I commissioned a double breasted suit in navy Loro Piana seersucker from Sid Mashburn that just arrived. But, I think seersucker can be harder to work in as your only warm weather sport coat or suit. The classic blue and white stripe is cool, and Sid himself looks great in it, but I always feel a little like I’m cosplaying a Kentucky Derby attendee when I wear it. Nothing wrong with it, but not for me. Instead I opt for tonal blues and greens with my seersucker. I’m not saying don’t get seersucker, please, please do, but maybe not for your first (or only) spring/summer sport coat.
There are many more options for warm weather jackets out there, this is what I'm partial to, and have some direct experience with. If you've got questions or want to talk more about what you could wear in the summers, reply to this email or comment below.
Any thoughts on the shirt? I already have a Ghost Blazer and that really does breathe but my shirts are your traditional oxfords that don’t seem to breathe as well.