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Squalo Roma JournalFABRIC NOTES
Linen tailoring, the Italian way
Linen has a reputation in summer. Some of it is earned. Some of it is not. Worn poorly, it looks like you slept in it. Worn well, it is one of the few fabrics that earns its place in a wardrobe cut for the sun.
Puglia in July. A courtyard, a stone table, the sound of a fountain that has been there two hundred years. The man at the table is wearing linen. It has moved with him all day. It is not perfect. That is the point.
I
Weight
A heavy Italian linen holds its shape through a Roman afternoon. A thin one collapses by lunch. The Squalo Roma linen shirts and linen trousers are cut from mid-weight Italian cloth for exactly this reason. The fabric has body. It breathes. It relaxes into the shape of the wearer over a few weeks, rather than going slack on day one.
II
The crease
Linen creases. That is the material doing its job. A good linen shirt or trouser is cut with a drape that makes the crease read as considered rather than careless.
Press lightly before you wear. Hang rather than fold where you can. Do not iron the life out of it.
Linen creases. That is the material doing its job.
III
Colour
Cream, stone, and a deep navy are the linen colours that carry. They hold across almost any light. They read well under the Mediterranean sun and under a long coastal evening. White linen is beautiful until it is not. The linen collection is built around colours that hold their own across a day.
IV
Fit
Linen should not be tight. A fitted linen shirt fights the fabric. A looser cut, with a little give through the body and a considered collar, is how Italian tailoring treats it. The garment moves with the man. It does not try to sculpt him.
V
Where it ends up
Linen trousers with a knit polo for a quieter weekend. A linen shirt with dark trousers for an evening. A linen suit, in the right colour, for a wedding. Never a black linen suit. Light catches the fabric. Dark absorbs it and loses all the texture that makes linen worth wearing in the first place.
Done right, linen is the quietest piece of luxury a summer wardrobe holds.
