What the hell happened to spring? We’re a good two months into the season, with summer being exactly a month away, but it still feels like the last days of winter. I had a chance to break out a linen suit a few weeks ago, when the temperatures climbed into the mid-80s, but it’s been too cold to wear anything breathable since then. It’s almost like spring never came.
One option I’ve been relying on is a “faux tweed” sport coat I had made through Napoli Su Misura. The term “faux tweed” refers to how the fabric has the sort of district check you’d expect to see on a traditional tweed, but none of the prickly surface. Instead, it’s made from a smoother, worsted wool, making it something like a citified version of a country cloth. Indeed, some people don’t like faux tweeds because they feel like they’re neither fish nor fowl, but they’re also perfect for those days that feel the same. Spring can be an awkward time for tailored clothing, when you might want something to match the gloomy weather, but wearing a real tweed can feel wrong in May.
You can find faux tweeds in a number of books. Porter & Harding’s Glorious Twelfth and Hudderfield’s Worsted Alsport are two of the most popular. Voxsartoria, pictured below, is seen wearing something from the first, while StyleForum member Mafoofan, pictured above, is wearing something from the second. There’s also Harrison’s Moonbeam, which is made from a wool and angora blend. It has a plush, almost cashmere-like feel, and a bit more nap than the two aforementioned sources. No Man Walks Alone has a ready-to-wear Moonbeam sport coat available this season, which was made for them by Sartoria Formosa in Naples.
Wear faux tweeds with silk neckties and heavier weight 14oz flannel trousers. You can read about warm weather clothes on the internet, where people pretend they don’t know what it looks like outside.