Wrinkle-free linen? Good luck with that. Thankfully, it doesn't matter …
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Loading... - Atanas Iliev
- 16 Jun 2022
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You know that thing on social media – “How It Started v How It’s Going” – where you contrast the way a story began with how it turned out? Sometimes it’s cute, like a screengrab of a new love interest sliding into your DMs next to your engagement photo. Or it could be a portrait of you and the fiance with a new puppy, then a shot of you, diamond-less, with fully grown dog.
That right there is the issue with linen. How it started: leaving home looking crisp, cool and timelessly elegant. How it’s going: arriving at work looking like you slept in your clothes. One minute you’re Jay Gatsby, sipping a gin rickey on the veranda in a pink linen suit; one train ride later you are Atticus Finch, frowsty and crumpled in an Alabama courtroom where the fan has bust.
Linen is a whole vibe: sundresses and ice-cream, The Talented Mr Ripley and the Amalfi coast
And yet, summer swings around, and we’re all like, “Oooh, where’s my linen shirt. It would be perfect for work on this hot day!” The triumph of hope over experience. What we need to do, I think, is to lean into linen, but strategically. Embrace that rumpled-but-upstanding Atticus Finch vibe, but without collapsing into a messy heap.
Linen is a whole vibe: sundresses and ice-cream, The Talented Mr Ripley and the Amalfi coast. It is having an effortlessly chic holiday wardrobe that fits in a stylishly small, probably vintage leather holdall yet somehow includes several surprisingly flattering large-brimmed sunhats. So a few creases are a small price to pay, surely?
Well, yes. But there is something deflating about looking in the mirror and realising that your carefully ironed shirtdress has morphed into a Worzel Gummidge costume.
The very qualities that make linen appealing in warm weather are the qualities that make it crumple. Fine cotton and silk will stick to the body, but linen has a stiffness that allows for ventilation. The downside of that rigidity is that linen creases and folds like paper, where softer fabrics mould and spring back. The smart way to wear linen is to be smart about which garments you go for: picking one linen piece, and accentuating the Amalfi vibe with, say, a silk scarf around your ponytail, and leather sandals. Read More...
