That’s it folks, we’ve arrived at autumn. For anyone who loves wearing clothes, fall is the perfect season. The cooler temperatures allow us to layer wool sport coats and sweaters over our shirts, and you can actually button up and wear a tie without sweating in 90-plus degree heat. On the other hand, it isn’t so cold yet that we dread leaving the house in the morning. This change of temperature also involves a change in the fabrics that we wear. In our first installment of the Fall Fabric Series, we’ll start at the beginning and talk about wool.
WOOL, AGAIN?
Yes, we covered wool back in the spring, so why go over it again? You may remember that the typical “all-season” weight of wool is nine ounces. This will keep you reasonably warm in December and not totally overheat you in June. As the weather breaks, we start looking to heavier wools –basically anything between nine and eleven ounces- to keep us warm. This is a very smart option for custom suits; because it’s cumbersome and often overkill to wear an overcoat on a 60-degree day, a suit made of ten-ounce wool will keep you very comfortable.
HOW HEAVY DOES WOOL GET?
We’ll get into this in a couple of months as everything starts freezing over, but wool can get as heavy as twenty or so ounces per square yard. These are not suiting wools, these are for overcoats, sport coats, and other clothing designated as “outerwear.”
DOES HENRY A. DAVIDSEN OFFER HEAVYWEIGHT WOOL?
Of course we do. Just about every mill that we work with –Holland & Sherry, Ariston, Isles, Dormeuil, Scabal, and a slew of others- offer wool in heavy, fall-appropriate weights. Again, the beauty of going custom is the ability to make that fall weight classic navy suit look different than your spring one. In fact, we recommend a three-piece and/or a double-breasted option for additional warmth. As we all know, it’s only going to get colder from now until March, so you might as well be prepared.
