By Jonathan Sigmon
When I start working with new clients, we often talk about building a wardrobe and the core pieces that serve as the foundation. Once you own a pair or two of classic three-season grey trousers, personal preferences and use cases largely drive what makes the most sense for the individual.
I have about fifteen pairs of lightweight custom trousers, and I’m highlighting the five that I consider my foundational pieces. My criteria is versatility and comfort in the heat. Versatility considers the color, texture, and performance of the fabric, notably how it pairs with a variety of shirts and jackets. Comfort in the heat is just as important, and I find some of the widely-held beliefs about what constitutes warm-weather fabric to be a bit lacking. (For instance, pure cotton is rarely a good choice for peak heat). I consider wool and wool blends to be the gold standard, as they perform better than most other fabric varieties. Thus, my list is heavy on these fabrics. I have a number of cotton chinos, pure linens, and pure silks, and they are all lovely in their own right. Yet none of them make the cut to the core five of my wardrobe.
This type of list is personal and differs from person to person. I work with a few folks who would have 3-4 types of dressy cotton chinos among their foundational pieces. Likewise, folks in conservative business environments might have a number of shades of pure wool that they rotate through each week. Since I essentially wear whatever I want, but generally still want to dress “tailored”, I have flexibility to just wear what I think are the best-looking and best-feeling fabrics available.
1- Mid Grey 8/9oz Open-Weave Wool
Vitale Barberis Canonico calls this cloth “rustic tropical”, which is an apt description. Since it was introduced a few years back, this has overwhelmingly been the #1 warm weather trouser fabric I have recommended (in various shades, though this medium grey is my go-to). I wrote a full piece referring to it as the perfect pant, so it’s naturally the top of my list. If I worked in a normal business environment where I needed a rotation of grey trousers, I would just have several of these. For folks who need simple, high-performing wool fabrics, there’s little reason to use anything outside of this fabric quality throughout the warm weather.
It has a lot of visible texture as it’s woven with different color, thicker yarns. This produces a bit of a melange effect similar to the look of a flannel, which is unusual in fabrics this lightweight. This is important is because the texture tones down the formality of the garment. Most grey wool trouser fabrics are composed of smoother, finer yarns, and are not well suited to casual tops. Most of us are dressing a little less formally than in years past, and I find that I can wear this just as comfortably with a polo shirt, or a tee and linen jacket as I can with a proper blazer and tie.
The high-twist, open weave, and crisp dry hand allows it to breathe and wear exceptionally well, and withstands wrinkling as good as any fabric this lightweight.
2- Charcoal Grey 8/9oz Open-Weave Wool
I wear grey pants a lot since I’m almost always wearing a jacket during the week, and grey pairs with just about everything. This is simply the darker charcoal color of the same rustic tropical open weave wool. As I said before, there’s little reason for me to choose another fabric. I have at least 4-5 other grey summer pants, which I just don’t wear that often unless both of my rustic tropicals are in hiding. This pair is actually part of a full suit, but I’ll need to have a second pair made soon so that I don’t wear through the trousers much faster than the jacket.
I often have a hard time deciding on a preference of flat front vs pleats, so I like that this darker, slightly dressier shade of grey offers another option and bumps the formality up with the pleats. Usually I wear these as part of dressier outfits.
3- Dark Tan Wool, Silk, and Linen Blend
This cloth is by Loro Piana, and is 71% wool, 15% silk, and 14% linen. We highlighted this type of fabric a few years back here. If you don’t need to wear especially formal clothes, this is a wonderful fabric quality for summer. We use it in everything – separate trousers, jackets, and full suits. I love it because it has a very linen look, but the majority wool content helps it perform quite like a normal trouser. It will wrinkle a bit here and there in the crotch or back of the knees, or a little more in extreme humidity, but for the most part it the absolute best option for a linen-look but when you want to stay put together. I have flat-front trousers in the same fabric in a lighter tan, and a brown, and I wear them all the time.
4- Light Tan Mohair and Wool
This is a fairly unique pant. Tan wool dress pants are usually rather soft and smooth gabardines/ twills, with the occasional English matte tropical wool. This 60/40 kid mohair and wool blend is super crisp with some sheen, holds a very sharp crease, and hangs quite nicely due to its slightly heavier 9.5oz weight. I hadn’t seen anyone wear anything similar to this, but it quickly became one of my staples. While I show it here in a couple pictures with a tee, it’s probably best for dressier outfits. I’ll note that it is slightly transparent, something to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to use an interior lining.
5- Tan Cotton, Wool, And Silk Chino
This last one was a tough choice, and while I don’t wear these as often as the others, every time I put them on they make me feel good. This is an incredibly soft fabric, which looks pretty much like a dressy chino, but the 48% cotton, 44% wool, 8% silk blend helps it withstand wrinkling more than a typical pure cotton, and I should mention again that it is so soft against the skin. The tightly woven, smooth, soft hand is frankly not ideal for peak heat and humidity. However, there’s more to Summer than the 95 degree days, and these are pretty good the rest of the time from April through September. For the folks who wear chinos most days but are looking for luxury options, these are great.