In today's newsletter:

— Lessons in linen

— A riff on Jürgen Teller's Phoebe Philo shorts

— So-called balloon trousers
— The v-neck tee's return

FIXATION OF THE WEEK

As someone who prides himself in knowing a lot about materials, I’ll admit I was well into my 20s before I acknowledged linen as anything other than a bed sheet, beach wedding cliché, or, more abstractly, a scent. A few seasons into owning a baby-blue thrift store Brooks Brothers shirt, I’m now a fan of the fabric — just like the rest of the world recently seems to be. 

Look anywhere from Cuccinelli to COS, Zegna to Zara, and you’ll see that linen has retired its stuffy image and moved into the mainstream across the price spectrum. Dedicated sub-sections, deceptively luxe-appearing celebrity capsules, and TikTok-dwelling customers are praising the flax plant textile as the best thing since sliced bread. But do they know it predates sliced bread by roughly 30,000 years?

Perhaps because it’s so ancient, the mass market has had an ambivalent relationship with linen. It probably took the Quiet Luxury reckoning for certain demos to get past the bohemian, woo-woo associations and embrace linen’s deeply useful, organic, and aesthetic properties. But the natural fiber movement is nigh. And linen’s coarse but comfortable texture; its chic wrinkles; its earthy color palette are seen as signals of quality. This is no less thanks to the Lemaires and Studio Nicholsons, the Buck Masons and ARKETs out there, who've done much to improve linen’s palatability through modern styling and tailoring. 

Linen’s somewhat sudden ubiquity is as much a trend as a course-correction in times when conservatism, sartorial conservatism, and sustainability are (back) en vogue, and AI makes us crave crafty imperfections. And, even more pressingly, in times of relentlessly hotter summers driven by climate change. Bummer, huh?

EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT OUR EYES ON RIGHT NOW:

Is it just me, or is a long-sleeved T-shirt lowkey sexier than a short-sleeved one? It's that or barely any sleeves at all as far as I’m concerned, both courtesy of Uniqlo.

​Or here, how about Wales Bonner x Y-3’s waffley knit base layer for something sportier and higher-brow?

Mainline-adidas’ neon-colored short-short is the spitting image of the pair that — lore has it — Jürgen Teller was gifted by Phoebe Philo… 

​Fresh off the Italian outerwear brand's nautical-themed SS'026 press, this Stone Island short sleeve is an unfussy embodiment of the luxury outfitters’ quiet genius: it's where creativity, concept, and craftsmanship collide.*

​The latest round of New Balance x Auralee is, to no one’s surprise, a tasty (and tasteful) feast for minimalist, finer things-type sneakerheads and casual fans of both brands.*

On minimalism, COS brought back its super purist mules (and might be succeeding at making the v-neck tee cool again).

Nike gave some of its more eccentric models a clean overhaul, too, leading to pristinely white versions of the Flyknit runner and the tabi-toed Rift sandal. 

​From white shoes to white pants, aren’t these A.P.C.s the prettiest white jeans you ever did see?*

Find Paloma Wool’s navy and lightest-weight “balloon trousers” instead, as something of a crossbreed between barrel cuts and cargos.

And where there’s a cargo, a camo print can’t be far — isn’t that right, Polo Ralph Lauren? 

If you haven’t yet been or aren’t going on summer vacation, at least have this beautifully sun-bleached BEAMS jacket to dress the part.