As London-based curator and art dealer Freddie Foulkes popped into our Bloomsbury HQ to pick up a few summer essentials, Oli couldn’t resist talking him through the soft, slubby beauty and sheer versatility of our favourite warm-weather fabric, linen. As linen provides a wonderfully laid-back textural handle, we have used it throughout our unstructured tailoring, trousers, short-sleeve shirts and cropped jackets of our Summer 24 collection.
“For me, linen is all about versatility, it can be dressed up and down, and is equally at home at a destination wedding or by the side of a pool. It's also an exceptionally good crop for the environment in that every single bit of the flax plant gets used, which is a wonderful thing. It's also just really comfy, really easy to wear and, when it's a warm day, it does come in jolly handy.” – Oli
Linen has a lightweight feel, nice handle, and gives the colour a slubby, textural finish that really lends itself to being mixed and matched with other items in any wardrobe. So, you're not 'just' buying a linen suit, you're also investing in myriad other styling configurations.
As a proud shopkeeper, spending time on the shopfloor working with customers is always time well spent for Oli. After sizing Freddie up and perusing the rails for a moment, he was quickly drawn to the subtle sheen of our Black Arnold Wyndhams suit for the first look. While black suits are typically regarded as eveningwear stalwarts, this relaxed unstructured style turns that idea on its head, thanks largely to the undeniable effortlessness of its lightweight linen foundations. We might be biased, but we think this is the ultimate in relaxed summer tailoring and Freddie agreed from the second its subtle vertical stitch pattern caught his eye.
