There’s going to be some items in your closet that’ll need to transition for the Spring and Summer seasons, and that definitely includes your suits. If you’ve seen my other suiting articles and videos, then there’s some suits that’ll work year round, but there’s always room for some seasonal specific suits.
So let’s go through what you should look for in a Spring and Summer suit and the best shoes to wear during this time of year.
I love brown, green, and burgundy during these seasons, but I’m also a big fan of lighter colors such as: light to medium blues, light greys, and camel.
For bolder colors, like green and burgundy, I prefer that they’re solid because a pattern can be too bold of a look and make you look like a goofball.
Experimenting with patterns is a perfect way to inject some fun and personality into your suits. I love windowpanes, plaids, checks, and stripes (ie. seersucker striped pattern).
It is perfectly fine to wear a darker color, like navy, but I always prefer to go with a navy windowpane or a nice navy plaid suit to help slightly break up the big swath of a dark color.
During this time of year, there’s a lot of fabric choices to choose from – linen, cotton, seersucker, or a lightweight wool fabric.
Most Spring & Summer wool suits will generally be around 8 – 10 ounces, which is your typical year-round fabric weight. I tend to prefer 8-8.5 ounces as that’s a nice lightweight wool that’ll keep you comfortable.
If you live in a more tropical environment that’s hot and humid, I recommend going with fabric that is around 6 ounces, since it will be much lighter and more breathable. Linen is typically a very lightweight, breathable fabric choice although you will have to deal with the immense wrinkles that will accrue throughout the day – there’s just no way around it with linen, unfortunately.
Another really great fabric that doesn’t wrinkle and that’s quiet breathable is seersucker, which I really love. Traditionally, seersucker fabric is blue and white but there are a lot of different color variations these days.
Aside from pattern, this is another area where you can add some flair to your Spring suiting.
There are 3 different hem lengths I recommend:
Exposed ankle – If you want a little bit of your ankle to be exposed than hem pants so they hit the top of your outer ankle bone. Make sure your pants are tapered pretty slim towards the ankle so that there’s not a bunch of fabric flopping around.
No break – When you want to wear loafers, have your pants hemmed so they’re barely skimming the top of your shoes. Again, pants should be tapered pretty slim towards the ankle.
Slight break – More versatile and appropriate for all occasions.
For dress shirts, I love using pastel colors like light pink, light green, and sky blue and patterned dress shirts, like gingham and stripes.
For ties, I love polka dots, florals, and fun patterns during this time of year. I also really like using silk knit ties in solid colors since they complement the visually lighter suits. Just please, make sure your ties are proportional to your body type.
Pro Tips
If you want to inject some color in your charcoal or navy suit (that you already own), pair it with a gingham or striped dress shirt, or even a lavender or light pink dress shirt. This will help give a more Spring-vibe to your outfit.
If you go with a patterned suit, then make sure to keep your dress shirt and pocket square a solid color because you don’t want to go overboard with mixing patterns. The tie can have a pattern, though.
If you’re wearing a solid Spring colored suit, then gingham and striped dress shirts in pastel colors look really good here. You’ll want a bolder solid colored tie so that it stands out from the shirt and compliments your suit.
If you’ve watched or read any of my other shoe videos and articles, I’ve specifically mentioned that you should save your suede items for Spring and Summer, and guess what? Now it’s time to bring them out.
My 2 favorite shoes to use are suede monkstraps and penny loafers.
Lightweight Wool Suit
I love the Brooks Brothers navy plaid suit – it was so easy to style it in a couple different ways on my friend Jordan O’Brien from The Gentlemen’s Cove.
$490 – Brooks Brothers plaid suit
$300 – Topman Dark Brown Suit
Linen
The Burberry and J.Crew gingham print suit are incredible and will make a stylish statement this Spring!
$1995 – Burberry Linen silk suit
$546 – J.Crew Ludlow Gingham Linen-Cotton Suit
$150 – H&M Linen blue suit (see matching pants here)
Seersucker
I’ll be updating this section soon as more seersucker suits hit the stores.
$498 – Brooks Brothers Seersucker Suit
Cotton
$2795 – Ermenegildo Zegna Cotton Suit
$456 – J.Crew Ludlow Italian Chino Khaki Suit (and matching pants here)
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