Summer Linens
Warm weather is a great excuse to dress down with short pants and short sleeves, but when your social life is also heating up it is no time to let your sense of style go to Hades. This season’s linen shirts, sporting cheeky patterns, mix nonchalance with studied elegance. They fit in at the beach or pool, but can open doors in places where T-shirts are not welcome.
Egyptians discovered thousands of years ago that porous, but plush, linen was the perfect cloth for for a torrid climate. It’s durable, eminently breathable and luxe to the touch. About the only thing it doesn’t do well is hold a press. But that “guaranteed to wrinkle” quality is part of the insouciant authenticity.
With a full-buttoning placket and lay-down collar, a linen shirt is at home with slacks, jeans and shorts. Tuck it in and you can wear it with a blazer. Leave the tails out and it’s a cover-up with bathing trunks.
Linen shirts are always available in solids, but part of the fun is picking out patterns. “Piranhas,” as Vilebrequin styles the fish on its Bowling Shirt, may seem perilous, but they are eye-catching on dry land (top, $260, matching swim trunks available). UNTUCKit’s Driscoll Shirt (center, $79) places teal palms over a navy background to evoke the tropics. Those are white butterflies on UNTUCKit’s navy Hopper Shirt (bottom, $89).
Accessorize with leather or woven belts and boat shoes or crepe souls. The adventurous will even try a silk scarf. But leave your ties at home.
