From March to November an outdoor wedding in Tamil Nadu regularly sits at 35°C, and a suit that ignores that will beat you inside the first hour. We've watched enough grooms wilt on stage to take it seriously. A summer wedding suit at Sellers starts from the climate and builds the formality on top of it, rather than the other way round. Done properly, you get a suit that looks like a wedding suit and behaves like something you can actually wear all day.
Cloths that survive an Indian summer
Fresco wool is the best answer we've. It's a high-twist worsted with an open, almost mesh-like structure that lets air move through the cloth. Formal enough for any suit occasion, creases far less than linen, and comfortable at temperatures that make a standard worsted miserable. Our fresco from Holland & Sherry and Scabal is one of the most-ordered cloths for Chennai wedding commissions.
Tropical weight wool in a 130s to 150s Super count and an open weave is the other good option. It looks like a proper suit cloth, crisp and formal, but at 220 to 260 gsm rather than the 280 to 320 gsm a standard suiting runs to. That difference doesn't sound like much and is very noticeable by the fourth hour of a reception.
Linen is the most casual of the three and the most breathable. It creases the way linen always has, which looks intentional outdoors and rather less so under ballroom lighting. Use it for garden and beach settings, not for a formal evening reception.
What goes inside a hot-weather suit
Everything inside the jacket should be as light as it can be while still holding the shape. Our summer suits are usually built with a half canvas or a floating chest piece instead of a full canvas, which takes real weight out of the garment. The lining goes in a light silk or silk blend rather than the standard viscose, which traps heat against your back and undoes the good work of the cloth.
You can also go unlined: no lining at all, with the internal seams cleanly finished so the inside is presentable. It's the coolest thing we make and it works beautifully in linen or fresco for outdoor weddings. If that feels too relaxed, a half-lined jacket, lined across the chest and back and open below, is a sensible middle position and the one most grooms settle on.