Last summer Fenghai wrote a brief article on flax, mainly telling everyone what flax is and how to distinguish the quality of flax.
It’s another year in the blink of an eye. Just like wearing Harries Tweed in winter, you must wear linen in summer. These are special God-given materials exclusive to the season.
▲ Linen and seersucker are mostly used as summer suit fabrics
Basic science has been popularized I have written about it before, so today we change to a more practical dimension: whether linen is more suitable for tops or bottoms, and then let’s talk about how to wear this summer’s God-given material well.
Linen top or trousers?
First of all, we need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of linen, and then make a choice of items in terms of wearing style.
Flax is the only natural fiber that can be used without chemical treatment. As a clothing fabric, it is light, thin and comfortable, absorbs sweat and is breathable, does not fit the body, generates almost no static electricity, has strong toughness, is wear-resistant and is not easily tear.
It is precisely because of the ultra-long fiber and ultra-high toughness of flax that it has almost no elasticity and will not automatically recover after wrinkles occur. When linen is used as a fabric for clothing, fine and dense wrinkles will easily occur when walking, sitting or lying down, which makes the fabric look dirty and requires time and effort in care and maintenance. Moreover, 100% linen clothing cannot be washed (dry cleaning is required), because the shrinkage rate of pure linen clothing is more than 10%. The higher the quality, the higher the shrinkage rate.
Note: Shrinkage is due to the moisture-absorbing and moisture-proof properties of linen. French linen items produced by fast fashion such as Uniqlo and Muji are pre-shrunk before leaving the factory.
After understanding the characteristics of linen, it is not difficult to find that wrinkles are inevitable when wearing linen items, and tops (such as shirts) will produce wrinkles as they are worn. There are much less wrinkles than pants. Since linen is very breathable and moisture-absorbing, and everyone’s backs tend to sweat a lot in summer, I personally prefer and recommend that when choosing all-linen items, give priority to tops, preferably long-sleeved or short-sleeved shirts (Polo Never mind).
At the same time, the ironing and care of pure linen tops is relatively simple. The light texture can be easily removed with a garment steamer. Remember to ask the salesperson before purchasing whether the item has been pre-shrunk. If not, whether it will shrink after washing.
So we can’t choose linen for summer trousers? Absolutely not!
The characteristics of linen doom it to be imperfect as trousers, but the development of textile technology has created the possibility of blending technology. The most common one is blended with cotton, which not only retains the softness and comfort of cotton, but also locks in the coolness and breathability of linen. For cotton and linen blends, you need to pay attention to the ratio of ingredients. Generally, a cotton:linen ratio of about 7:3 is suitable. There are relatively few wrinkles, comfort and drape are guaranteed, and maintenance is relatively easy (but ironing It is much more difficult than tops and requires an iron, so those with disabilities are advised to entrust it directly to professional institutions).
How to wear linen with a high-end feel
If you want to be clearly different from the old man walking a bird on the street, you need to Understand which style is more suitable for linen, a material.
There are many minefields, such as the popular Chinese style on Taobao and the ethnic style of wide robes and long sleeves. Clean and sharp tailoring is the way to go for linen. It can be slightly looser, between fit and oversize, for the best effect.
▲ Young people please avoid linen tops like this
A style that is too slim will be more prone to dense folds and is too loose It is completely the same as Mr. Bird Walking. Therefore, tailoring is the highest threshold for using linen fabrics.
Most T-shirts made of linen are not very good-looking, and it is easy for them to look like popular ethnic styles. I prefer loose-fitting long-sleeved and short-sleeved shirts, which have enough space inside to better utilize the elegant characteristics of linen. The surface of the linen material is slightly rough, and the visual experience of “clean and old” is very easy to obtain.
Short-sleeved shirts also need to be slightly looser, but…Sleeve shirts usually look old-fashioned, so the color can be a little more “bright”, such as low-saturation pink.
Long-sleeved shirts made of linen usually need to be bought one size larger and worn rolled up in the summer. Although long-sleeved shirts will have more wrinkles, After rolling up the sleeves, the overall style is very consistent, and the pleats become natural and pleasing to the eye.
For cotton and linen trousers, be sure to control the length of the trousers. As long as the trousers are not very tight, the trousers length is highly recommended to be 9.5 points. It is closely adjacent to the upper but does not invade each other.
Line shorts are very easy to wear and look like a bird-walking uncle, but they feel extremely comfortable. The style is more gentlemanly (single pleated rolled hems, etc.) ) is easy to produce results.
You need to be patient when choosing shoes. Sneakers (fashionable dad shoes, etc.) will definitely look inconsistent when paired with linen trousers. The stiffness and luster of linen are not enough. Leather shoes made of suede material are very suitable. When the trousers are of the right length, it is easiest to match them with loafers to create a summer feel. It is worth mentioning that the effect is great when paired with straw sandals, and you can choose a brighter color.
The old rules are written at the end
If you don’t know much about flax and don’t like flax that much, I It is more recommended to choose French linen from Uniqlo and Muji, which will last for one or two seasons without any problem.
Moreover, these two fast fashion brands are absolutely qualified in terms of style and layout, and their price advantage is sufficient.
But if you are no longer satisfied with the linen produced by fast fashion, you are welcome to come to Fenghai’s Weibo to have a cup of tea and chat, and share your own experiences. Love items and unique understanding.
