Linen is the oldest suiting cloth there is, and in a city like ours it is also the most sensible. It breathes in a way wool never will, it takes heat off the body rather than holding it in, and it has an unfussy look that a heavy suit in May can only dream of. And yes, it creases. Those pressed lines soften as the day goes on, and that is not a defect, that is what linen does and half of why it looks good. A linen suit cut here in a fine Irish or Belgian cloth, natural or dyed, is one of the jobs our tailors most enjoy getting.
Why linen works in this climate
Linen fibres are hollow, so air moves through the cloth and moisture lifts off the skin instead of sitting on it. The cloth cools you rather than insulating you, which is the exact opposite of what wool is designed to do. Wool is a brilliant insulator, which is wonderful in Yorkshire and less helpful here. With Chennai over 35 degrees for a good part of the year, nothing else in the cloth room is as well matched to the weather.
The price you pay is creasing, and linen creases more than wool and more than cotton. That is the fibre itself, and nobody can engineer it out without killing the breathability that made you want linen in the first place. So the sensible response is to stop fighting it. A linen suit looks immaculate at nine in the morning. By lunchtime the trousers have started to show the day. By evening it looks lived in, which anyone who knows linen reads as entirely correct.
If you need to look freshly pressed from morning to night, a formal presentation, a court appearance, a wedding where you are in the photographs all day, take a light tropical worsted or a fresco instead and we will say so. For garden functions, lunches, summer weddings where you are a guest, and anything with a relaxed feel to it, linen has no competition at all.
Choosing the linen and the colour
The best suiting linen comes out of Ireland and Belgium, the two places that have been weaving it seriously for the longest. Irish linen tends to run a little heavier and tighter. Belgian linen is often softer and finer. Both make excellent suits provided the weight is right, which for a suit means roughly 200 to 240 gsm rather than the lighter cloths used for shirting or casual wear.
On colour, natural linen in cream or ecru is the classic and the most useful. It takes white, blue and cream shirts and works with almost any casual shoe you own. Stone and light tan are just as easy. Pale grey is less common and quietly elegant. Mid-blue and green are bolder and better suited to social occasions than to the office. Dark navy or charcoal linen is a perfectly valid choice, though it gives up a lot of linen's warmth and ease and ends up reading like a formal suit in an unexpected fabric.