Dress Like a Man (11 page)

Cotton cloth tends to also be "trainable" -- you can press it into sharp creases and flat planes with very little effort. That comes with a downside, however, as your cotton shirts will just as happily "train" into any wrinkles or creases caused by storage.

And, like every fiber, cotton has a few downsides that keep it from being the perfect choice in
every
situation:

• Water Absorption
  - Cotton fabric soaks up water and retains it. It lacks both the natural water resistance of wool and the "wicking" properties of some synthetic fibers. That means that when it gets wet, it stays wet -- and it gains weight and loses breathability in the process, removing two of its most attractive qualities. When you know you're going to be getting wet (or sweating heavily), cotton isn't the best choice.
  
• Drape/Body
  - Cotton cloth doesn't have the firm body of wool. Jackets and slacks made from cotton have a softer, more slumped look -- which isn't inherently
  bad
  , but which does need to be taken into account when you plan your looks. Similarly, cotton shirts usually need a good starching and ironing if you want them to look ultra-crisp.
  
• Mildew Susceptibility
  - Men in humid climates should beware of leaving cotton out wet. Mildew grows easily in the damp fibers, which will cause stains and smells, and can trigger allergies as well.
  

It's unlikely that anything will replace cotton as the default material for men's shirts and other simple garments in the near future. No matter what your style is like, you're going to be dealing with cotton to achieve it.

Learn to love it -- and to take care of it. Happily, conventional washing and drying will work for nearly any 100% cotton garment, which makes maintaining a large part of your wardrobe fairly easy.

Linen

Every man owns clothing made from wool and cotton at some point in his life. They are fundamental defaults of the clothing industry.

Not so with linen. Some men go their whole lives without ever touching the stuff.

Linen is a plant fiber, like cotton, but the flax that it comes from is much more costly to grow and to turn into threads for weaving. In menswear, its primary use is for summer-weight clothing, particularly in Europe.

Almost any basic garment can be made from linen, including jackets, trousers, and shirts. Most of its unique properties, however, are double-edged, making it more of a niche material than cotton or wool:

• Weight
  - Linen is a very light, breezy fabric. It weighs considerably less than cotton, and is comparably breathable. That makes it an excellent choice for men in warm climates. However, it billows easily, and has no real drape to speak of, meaning that linen garments (unless starched) almost always have a soft, casual slump to them.
  
• Low Memory
  - Linen wrinkles easily, but the wrinkles tend to shake out and shift. It doesn't hold hard creases the way that a folded piece of wool cloth would. So long as the wearer doesn't mind a bit of a casually rumpled look, linen clothes can be packed down small, then shaken out and worn at once. However, making linen look crisp and wrinkle-free is challenging, and requires careful, low-heat ironing.
  
• Light When Wet
  - Unlike cotton, wet linen -- while it loses some breathability -- doesn't retain much water. It clings to the skin, but remains light, and it dries much faster than cotton. That makes it particularly valuable in humid, tropical climates with frequent, rapid shifts between rain and sun.
  

How much linen your wardrobe ends up containing will likely have a lot to do with climate. Men living in North America or northern Europe may have a jacket or a shirt or two as comfortable summer options, while men in climates closer to the equator may want a number of linen suits, trousers, jackets, and shirts.

There is a bit of a rule in fashion that men should only wear one linen item at a time (i.e., no linen jacket over a linen shirt), and it's not a bad starting guideline -- but don't take it too seriously. So long as the items have distinct colors and textures, it's possible to mix linens without looking awkward.

Silk

For all its recognition as a luxury fiber, silk is only of limited value in menswear.

Pure silk suits are essentially novelty items. It's more common as a lining material, and even then it tends to be more delicate and temperamental than simpler, more functional synthetics.

The most common (and practical) use for silk in menswear is as a light, breathable shirting fabric for tropical climates. It also sees use in traditional non-Western garb, where it can be wrapped and folded in multiple layers to create a sturdier outfit than a basic business suit.

Artificial Fibers

There are enough different kinds of synthetic fibers that it's hard to lump them all into a single category.

Some are designed to be blended with natural fibers. Many suits, for example, including some quite expensive ones, will be 98% or 99% wool, rather than 100%, with the small non-wool percentage comprised synthetic strands that help give the wool fibers a strong "backbone" for added durability.

Others are used to create whole cloths, usually as a cost-saving measure. Polyester shirts are famously cheap -- and famously tacky, with shiny surfaces and an unpleasant, plastic-like feel against the skin.

Still more are used as liners, providing a sturdy shape for suit jackets and adding a mildew-resistent inner layer.

And modern athletic wear has seen the development of new fibers designed for flexibility, light weight, and ultra-fast water evaporation, not to mention breathable waterproofing for outerwear.

The takeaway there is that you shouldn't plan on owning a lot of clothes made from synthetic fibers -- but there's nothing wrong with owning a few if they serve a specific purpose. It's the cost-saving blends of cotton or wool with cheap synthetics like rayon and polyester that you want to avoid. Those do nothing but drag down the quality of your clothing, while adding little in the way of practical benefits.

C
HAPTER 19:
F
ABRIC
M
EASUREMENTS AND
W
EIGHTS

In the last chapter, we talked about the fundamental properties of raw materials.

Cloth, however, is not just its raw material. Thread weight, weave, and even spinning techniques affect how a finished bolt of fabric looks and feels.

The textile industry is, unfortunately, not regulated with anything like consistency. The claims from some manufacturers will be much more reliable than the claims from others.

The listed numbers -- thread count, weight, and so forth -- should never be your sole deciding factor in a clothing purchase. There are just too many ways to game the system even without outright lying. But they can provide a helpful guideline, and it's worth understanding what claims are being made, even if they aren't 100% provable.

Thread Count and Cotton Count

The most commonly advertised measurement standard for cotton goods is the "thread count," which measures the number of individual threads in one square inch of fabric.

In theory, this tells you how fine the threads are. The lighter and thinner the individual threads, the more of them there will be in a square inch, and thus the higher the thread count will be.

In reality, it's possible to make very thin threads out of fine, high-quality cotton -- but it's also possible to make it out of cheap, flimsy cotton that will break down very quickly and feel scratchy against the skin. Additionally, some manufacturers will count every individual fiber twisted into each thread as a "thread" of its own, effectively tripling or quadrupling their listed thread count.

A more reliable standard, but one that isn't listed in most stores, is the "cotton count," which measures the number of hanks (lengths of spun thread) needed to weigh one pound. Finer threads are lighter, so the higher the cotton count, the softer and smoother the resulting cloth will be.

If you're investing in serious, upper-end menswear from a custom tailor, talk with him about the measurements used. Select a bolt of cloth with a cotton count that's at least in the 30s or 40s -- that's where the texture really starts to become smooth and supple.

Wool Yarn Count

Like cotton, there are a couple of different measurements used to evaluate the fineness of wool cloths. The most common, however, is the yarn count, also called the worsted count or the S-count.

This is a slight inversion of the cotton count measurement. Instead of counting how many hanks of spun thread weigh one pound, it measures how many hanks can be spun from one pound of
raw wool
.

Different countries extend the scale to different scores, but most suit fabrics will fall between an 80 and a 200. The former would be a simple, sturdy worsted wool, while the latter would be a supple "ultrafine" with a light, almost liquid texture.

As with everything else, manufacturers get competitive about yarn count -- and sometimes play fast and loose with the standards as well.

Generally speaking, you want suits made from cloths measuring between 80 and 120-130 or so. Higher counts exist, but are much more likely to be exaggerated, and the few that do legitimately qualify are very delicate and high-maintenance. You want a suit that will hold up for a while, and the ultrafine threads simply aren't as sturdy.

Fabric Weight

Bolts of cloth, regardless of material, are weighed by the square yard.

Since we're talking about a physical weight here, the sensation is about the same regardless of the raw material -- ten ounces of cotton denim isn't going to feel any heavier than ten ounces of linen (although the linin will likely be more breathable.)

• Under 6 oz.
  is a lightweight cloth. Thin shirts and some finer trousers fall into this range. It's hard to make cloth sturdy at this weight, so these tend to be less durable items.
  
• 6-10 oz.
  is lightweight but sturdy, and a typical range for shirts and light trousers. Some "tropical" wools come in this range, as do many cotton and linen fabrics.
  
• 10-14 oz.
  is a typical weight for both jackets and trousers. Most wool suits fall into this range. Denim and other sturdy cotton weaves also commonly fall into the 10-14 oz. range.
  
• 14 oz. and up
  is the heavy end of fabric. Very few bolts of cloth weigh more than 20 oz. per square yard, apart from some tough canvases and other materials occasionally used for outerwear.
  

Note that weight is not really a measure of quality. A fabric can be light and cheap, or heavy and expensive. It tells you more about how heavy and warm the garment is going to feel that it does about the texture or the handfeel.

Using Weights and Measurements

Most off-the-rack clothes do not have details like thread count or fabric weight printed on the tags.

That makes this information of limited use until you enter the world of custom-made clothing. Once you're there, however, most tailors price their wares based on the raw cloth, and should be able to discuss fabric measurements with you in detail.

A dedicated shopper can, by writing the manufacturing company (or in some cases visiting their website), get a sense for the fabrics used in off-the-rack clothing.

It's potentially worth your while if you're considering some items from the upper end stores, and want more detailed information. Cheaper brands and "big box" stores, however, are unlikely to stock anything with a high cotton count or a particularly fine yarn count, so save yourself the effort and just assume that you're getting basic, low-quality stuff there.