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Summer suits that can be worn in the winter?

TheFoo

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Are there any cloths appropriate for the summer (fresco, mohair, linen, etc.) that would make a summer suit appropriate for business that can also be worn during the winter? Suppose that you are willing to stomach the cold and only care about appearances.
 

upnorth

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With an overcoat for the commute and outdoors, I don't see why a summer suit cannot be worn.
 

TheFoo

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Originally Posted by upnorth
With an overcoat for the commute and outdoors, I don't see why a summer suit cannot be worn.

I figure some fabrics wouldn't look right. I am not familiar with fresco, but it sounds like it has a very distinctive look. Alternatively, are there some winter-appropriate suits (11-13 oz.) that wouldn't absolute kill me in the summer?

The key is that I want to avoid in-between 'three-season' suits, but I don't want to invest in a huge quantity of fall/winter and spring/summer suits all at once. Ideally, I'd buy a couple of each and suffer a little bit more throughout the year before updating with more.
 

dopey

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Originally Posted by mafoofan
Are there any cloths appropriate for the summer (fresco, mohair, linen, etc.) that would make a summer suit appropriate for business that can also be worn during the winter? Suppose that you are willing to stomach the cold and only care about appearances.

Fresco does not look like a summer cloth unless it is in a summer color or, in the case of the 7 or 8 oz frescoes, the light weight is obvious.


For the record, this is a dumb idea.
Over time, you will end up accumulating all you need and you will want your summer suits to look like summer suits and your winter suits to look like winter suits.
 

Ataturk

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Harrisons has an 11-ounce book called "Frontier" that's worth looking at. It's got a slightly scratchy, stiff, "dry" feeling like the frescos, but with a somewhat finer weave.

I wouldn't wear it on a cold winter night or outside for long on a 100-degree day, but it's a good compromise for a "year-round" suiting here (in the South...).
 

acconrad

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I'm wearing a khaki suit right now as a mockery of this cold new england weather.

If you have the attitude, you have the ability to wear anything anywhere at anytime. There are men that wear skirts on this very forum...I think a summer suit in winter isn't anything radical.
 

needshoehelp

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If they can be worn in the winter, they're not really summer suits anymore, are they?
 

furo

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Originally Posted by acconrad
I'm wearing a khaki suit right now as a mockery of this cold new england weather.

Heh

I was on 93 this morning driving into Logan airport and trust me, it was the weather mocking me not the other way around. I woke up to snow and a wicked wintry mix that very quickly reminded me to stock up on winter gear, pronto!
 

radicaldog

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There are the horrible tasmanians of this world, esp. by Loro Piana. The winter versions still look as thin as summer cloth, and they are relatively insulating. I bet that Mariano Rubinacci would counsel against them though.

In any event I second Dopey's advice above, for what it's worth.
 

TheFoo

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Originally Posted by dopey
For the record, this is a dumb idea.
Over time, you will end up accumulating all you need and you will want your summer suits to look like summer suits and your winter suits to look like winter suits.


Let me put it another way. I would rather only buy four or five suits upfront than nine or ten. Moreover, I'd prefer to accumulate a sufficient number of both winter and summer suits over the long term (as you suggest). So, if I start off buying 'thee-season' suits that are neither very winter nor very summer appropriate, I'll feel like I wasted money on compromised purchases I ultimately don't really want.

Thus, my ideal solution would be to buy 1 or 2 winter summer suits and 1 or 2 winter suits upfront that can collectively be worn year-round over the next year or two, even if I must suffer a little discomfort. After I accumulate more suits, summer suits will be relegated exclusively to warm weather use and winter suits to cold weather use.

I am not suggesting buying suits made of all-season cloth.

Make sense?
 

apropos

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Not to point out the blindingly obvious, but you are essentially trying to convince yourself here that it is somehow a good idea to buy a winter weave in summer weight, for a DB that you will no doubt try to dress down with bluchers as well, no?
confused.gif
I suppose there is some consistency here - that this suit will not work 'best' in any season?
 

TheFoo

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Originally Posted by apropos
Not to point out the blindingly obvious, but you are essentially trying to convince yourself here that it is somehow a good idea to buy a winter weave in summer weight, and in DB too?

Which I suppose you will somehow try to dress down with bluchers as well, no?
confused.gif


Uggh. no. That is not what I'm saying at all. I want to know what summer weight, summer weave cloth can be worn in winter without looking ridiculously unseasonable, and conversely whether any winter weight cloth would be tolerable in the summer (would I absolutely die in a 11 or 13 oz. worsted?).

So far, it apears that 8-9 oz. fresco would fit the bill since it is easily wearable in the summer, but won't look terribly out of place during the winter.
 

Ataturk

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Get the bases covered with 9-month suits and keep an overcoat or a warm flannel blazer handy during the winter until your wardrobe is built up.

'Course winter's not that big of a deal around these parts, so it's easy for me to talk about it...
 

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