Four materials, each with a habit. Knowing the habit before you buy is most of the difference between a piece you wear every summer and one that goes back.
| Material | Weights in the range | Feel | Coolness | Creases | Other habit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linen | 165–280 gsm | Dry, textured, soft after washing | Highest | Heavily | Dark shades rub dye at first |
| Cotton poplin | 115–140 gsm | Smooth, crisp | High | Lightly | Pale shades a little sheer |
| Cotton canvas & twill | 200–300 gsm | Firm, softens with washing | Moderate | Lightly | Attracts lint; twill shrinks 2% |
| Linen-cotton | 160–260 gsm | Soft from the first wear | High | Moderately | Pills lightly at cuffs for a few washes |
| Paper straw | 85–110 g per hat | Light, even, slightly stiff | – | – | Damaged by water and crushing |
The weight on each product page is the cloth weight in grams per square metre. Lighter is cooler and more see-through; heavier hangs straighter and lasts longer. Two pieces in the same cloth at different weights behave differently, which is why we print the number.
Spun from flax grown in northern France and Belgium and woven in northern Portugal. Every linen piece is washed after it is sewn, which takes out the stiffness and most of the shrinkage before it reaches you. It is the coolest cloth we sell because the fibre is hollow and wicks, and it gets softer every year.
| Do | Avoid | |
|---|---|---|
| Wash | 30 °C, with like colours | 60 °C — it sets creases and fades dye |
| Dry | Line dry, or tumble low and take out damp | Tumbling bone dry — it bakes the creases in |
| Iron | Hot, while still damp, or not at all | Ironing it dry — it will not flatten |
| Creases | Expect them within the hour | Returning it because it creased |
| Dark shades | Wash alone the first two times | Wearing a new ink overshirt over a white shirt |
Linen is more see-through than cotton at the same weight. White and flax under 175 gsm show a dark bra or dark underwear against strong backlight; the pages say so where it applies.
A tight plain weave of long-staple cotton, woven in Mataró. Smooth, crisp, opaque in colour and nearly so in white, and the only cloth in the range that looks pressed at the end of the day. It is cool, though not as cool as linen because the weave is tighter. Hang it to dry and it needs no iron; tumble it dry and it will.
The trouser, shorts and overshirt cottons. Canvas is a plain weave, washed after sewing so it drapes rather than stands; twill is the diagonal weave of workwear, brushed on the inside here for warmth. Both wear harder than linen and both are warmer. The twill shrinks about 2% in length on its first wash and is cut long for it; both pick up lint and pet hair.
Poplin for a shirt you will wear to work. Canvas for shorts and trousers you will walk in. Twill for the overshirt you will want when the sun goes down. None of them for sitting still in 35 °C — that is linen.
A 55/45 blend woven in Portugal. Most of linen’s coolness, roughly half its creasing, and softer from the first wear because the cotton fills the gaps between the flax fibres. It is the cloth of the drawstring trousers, the pull-on shorts, the oversized shirt and the chore overshirt.
The price of the blend is pilling: where the cloth rubs against itself — cuffs, the collar edge, under a bag strap — the short cotton fibres roll into small bobbles for the first few washes. Pure linen never does this. It stops on its own; a fabric comb removes what is there.
A tightly twisted yarn made of paper, braided into a flat strip and sewn in a spiral from the crown outwards, then blocked over a wooden form. It is what most woven summer hats have been made from for the best part of a century: lighter and more even than natural straw, and it does not splinter or shed.
A seam that opens or a button that comes off within 3 years is sewn back at our cost, postage both ways. Creasing, fading, pilling on the blend, snags and a wet hat are the material behaving as described above, not a fault — but if you are not sure which it is, photograph it and ask. We would rather look than argue.