In Chapter 1, The Myth of the “All-Season” Suit, I talked about the reality that, in Japan’s climate, there is no such thing as one perfect suit you can wear all year round, and about how to choose a fully lined jacket and a waistcoat as part of dressing like a grown-up.
If what you’re after is “one suit that will see me safely through work”, the year-round three-piece I described in Chapter 1 will do the job perfectly well.
But if you’d like to enjoy a suit not as a uniform you’re obliged to wear, but as one of the finest indulgences a grown man is allowed, then beyond that lies a world of breathtaking depth and luxury.
That world is about dressing for Japan’s four seasons, and taking real pleasure in the cloths each season has to offer.
People say our summers are getting longer and our winters shorter, and that the gentle gradations between the seasons are slowly fading.
That’s exactly why I think it’s worth deliberately changing what you wear as the seasons turn. It shows the ease of a man who enjoys the changing weather, and these days it’s about the most luxurious form of self-expression there is.
This time, I’d like to introduce some superb textiles that awaken all five senses, the kind you can only enjoy in spring and summer or in autumn and winter, along with photos of suits we’ve actually made here in the shop.
Textiles with Allure and Cool Comfort That Shine in the Summer Sun
Summer is hot. Even so, making do with a cheap, thin, flimsy suit is a rather joyless choice for a grown man.
Summer cloths are full of clever ideas for turning the sunshine to your advantage, so you look cool and alluring at the same time.
1. Seersucker
Its signature is the rippled, puckered surface. Thanks to those puckers, the cloth never clings to your skin, so there’s always a path for the breeze.
Take a look at the photo. By the sea, with a white T-shirt and espadrilles, it becomes a superb summer resort look with a relaxed, grown-up air. Put a shirt and tie underneath, on the other hand, and it changes character completely: a dressy summer outfit for town that keeps you cool without losing any of its formality.
2. Linen × Wool
The characterful creases that deepen the more you wear it are what linen is all about. Blend in a fine wool, and you keep linen’s richly textured slubs while losing any sloppiness, so the suit holds a beautiful drape and shape.
A brown check running across deep indigo blue, and white shell buttons that catch the sunlight. Make a summer double-breasted suit in linen-wool, and weight and coolness come together beautifully, giving off a grown-up allure that outshines everything around it.
There’s more, too: “mohair”, spun from the hair of the Angora goat, with its soft, metallic sheen, and “Solaro” (suncloth), whose two different coloured yarns on the face and back shimmer mysteriously like beetle wings in the sun. Summer has its own luxurious lustre that only summer can offer.
Textiles That Make the Cold Your Ally and Speak of a Man’s Gravitas
Winter suits, on the other hand, are all about “weight, warmth, and the toughness of proper gear for a man”.
Rather than hiding under a thin coat, you beat the cold with the heft of the cloth itself and the strength of the tailoring. The commanding presence that comes from that resonates perfectly with the body of a man who has lived a little.
1. Tweed
A rough, rustic woollen cloth born of Scotland’s harsh landscape.
There’s warm homespun scattered with red and brown neps (flecks of knotted yarn), and gun club check, the very symbol of English classic style. It feels stiff and coarse at first, but over five or ten years of wear it softens remarkably and settles into the curves of its owner’s body. It isn’t so much “buying clothes” as “raising a lifelong companion”, and that feeling is pure romance for a man.
2. Corduroy
The vertical wales soak up the light, creating deep, distinctive shadows and a rugged, manly character.
A three-piece in deep forest green gives off grown-up dignity and depth the moment you put it on. And a brown corduroy suit pairs perfectly with “a man’s gear” such as a four-wheel drive or a classic car, holding its own with real presence even out in the great outdoors.
3. Velour (Velvet)
At winter evening celebrations, receptions and glamorous ceremonies, nothing radiates the aura of the star of the show quite like velour.
Jet-black velour with a deep, almost wet-looking sheen, combined with glossy satin (silk facing) lapels on a double-breasted cut. You could never wear it for daytime business; it’s the height of luxury, made purely for the evening. “Suit” is one word, yet it covers a world of this much range.
Conclusion: There Is No Right Answer. It Comes Down to “Your Aesthetic, and How Far You Want to Go”
“With this many cloths out there, do I have to own them all?”
You might think so, but that’s not the case at all.
Start with one “trustworthy year-round three-piece” like the one I talked about in Chapter 1, and let it be your flagship for the occasions that count. Then, as the years go by and your business and lifestyle give you a little more room, you can think, “This summer, why don’t I have a seersucker or linen-wool suit made for drives in my car?” or “This winter, let’s enjoy some rugged menswear in tweed or corduroy,” and widen your grown-up pleasures a little at a time.
A suit is not something you wear because someone forces it on you.
In the end, it’s up to your own budget, how much fun you want to have with the culture of clothing, and how far you want it to enrich your life.
Your own particular tastes, the kind that will never fit inside the limits of off-the-peg clothing.
Special cloths you’ll still love ten years from now, whatever the trends are doing.
Whenever you feel like going in search of cloth like that, you’re always welcome at L’ECRIN in Sasa, Nagasaki.
I look forward to running our fingertips over the swatches that fill a whole wall of shelves, from vintage cloths to the latest, and talking together about the romance of menswear.
A suit made to your measurements
Sleeves, trouser hem, jacket length, shoulders and arms are all cut to your own body, not a size chart. Fittings are by appointment only. Tell us the dates you are in Japan and we will propose a time.
