By Jonathan Sigmon
Photography by Christopher Fenimore
I’ve wanted to write a piece on the variety of ways to wear a fresco suit since last Summer when we shot our Spring/Summer 2019 lookbook. But, we’re a small staff and some things always get pushed to the side. As it happens there is nothing like a month-long closure to find the time for all the things we’ve been meaning to get done. As we wrote in a prior Swatches piece, we love this fabric due to its extraordinary breathability and wonderful drape. An additional key characteristic, especially in the right shade of blue, is its versatility. A lightweight suit with such great color and texture like this offers quite a few styling possibilities, so here’s a quick overview of a few ways I like to wear it.
Louche Dressy
Given its vibrant shade of blue, the most natural pairing for this suit is with an open-collared shirt and loafers. It’s the type of outfit I’d want to wear to a semi-formal Summer get-together or an evening out. All the better if you can borrow someone’s Porsche along the way (thanks Alan). Against the solid blue suit fabric, the striped seersucker band collar shirt steps into focus. I am not one for overdoing it on the brightness front, so a muted multi-blue and brown printed silk pocket square finishes the look. When it comes to warm-weather tailoring, there are few better pairings than fresco and seersucker to beat the heat.
Summer Casual
Pushing it one step more casual, on a weekend morning in Southampton I wore the suit with a lightweight cotton jersey polo from our ready-to-wear collection. This is where the fabric of the suit makes a marked difference. If you’re wearing a Summer suit over a knit, the natural choice is a more casual fabric – suits of cotton, linen, or wool blends are expected and generally ideal. Pure wool is less common as it tends to be a bit dressier. But with the matte texture, vibrant color, and open weave, this wool fresco looks right at home worn casually like this. Espadrilles round out the look and emphasize it’s intended for leisure.
Professional Attire
Back in the city, dressing it up with a tie for a day in and out of the showroom. There are a host of ways to put a dressy outfit together around this suit, and here we leaned toward the lighter side. A soft yellow shirt lends an unexpected base for a gorgeous light blue printed silk tie. The vibrance of this shade of navy suit plays well with the pale yellow shirt, but other natural shirt options include white, pink, or patterned blues. You’ll have to take my word for it but I wore proper Edward Green loafers that day, which look quite nice, but most workdays I’d sport a pair of mid-brown Belgian loafers with an outfit like this.
I’ll wrap up with one more thought. We didn’t style it this way, but if the suit jacket were finished with brown horn buttons you could easily wear it as a separate blazer, especially if you’re traveling and just need to pack light. In summary, when made in the right cloth, an open-weave fresco suit can be a supremely versatile garment that offers a host of styling opportunities for whatever comes your way in the summer season.
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