So this summer, J.Crew has again rolled out the bluntly-named Big-Fit suit, a worthy follow-up to its viral Giant chinos that takes the Kenmare’s relaxed proportions to their logical conclusion. The latest version comes rendered in a calming Italian linen, sourced from a century-old Italian mill. If J.Crew’s track record is any indication, expect the Big-Fit suit to be just as ubiquitous as its others by this time next year—which means now’s the moment to supersize your closet before the rest of the group chat catches up.
Best Splurge-Worthy Linen Suit: J. Mueser Waverly Linen Suit
Fabric: 100% Linen | Color: Dark brown | Sizes: IT 46-54
When New York City’s best-compensated fellas are in the market for a custom suit—for their wedding, their promotion, their Friday night—they increasingly go to J. Mueser. For good reason, too. As we’ve written about previously, founder Jake Mueser started the brand in 2008, and has since established “what might be the closest thing NYC has to a signature style of tailoring.” His suits are a “melting pot,” as he calls it, of influences: There’s the American natural shoulder, the English ticket pocket, the generous Italian lapel. But for now, and for your purposes, all that really matters is that his note-perfect suits are also available to order online—in this case, in an exceptional, chocolatey brown.
More Linen Suits We Love
Evan Kinori Linen Herringbone Suit
Evan Kinori’s linen two-piece is the savvy sartorialist’s answer to transitional weather. The jacket is cut loose and generous, guaranteed to keep you from sweating buckets come summer—but might look even better as a makeshift chore coat with a threadbare tee underneath. Wear the pants instead of jeans on your next run to the bodega and even the surly dude behind the cashier will appreciate the flex.
Percival Linen Double-Breasted Suit
Too many men’s linen suits run the risk of looking overly casual (or overcompensate with a particularly structured fit). But red carpet mainstay Percival manages to split the difference, thanks to crisp notch lapels and a duo of patch pockets that’ll help you’ll nail the dress code for brunch—and the slew of summer weddings on your docket.
Brunello Cucinelli Linen Suit
If you always wondered how Italian drip gods manage to look so fly in the summer, we’ve got the answer: a suit exactly like this one. Brunello Cucinelli’s subtly-textured linen option may seem laissez-faire in vibe, but to really capitalize on its pedigree, we’d recommend going the whole nine yards—pale blue shirt, dark knit tie, dress shoes shined to a mirror-like gleam.
Boglioli Double-Breasted Linen Suit
The other essential name in fine Italian linen tailoring, Boglioli has been keeping the sweat off of European brows for decades—including George Clooney’s. This suit is garment-dyed, double-breasted, and as ready to cover a button-up shirt as it is a rollneck sweater.
Sunspel Garment-Dyed Unstructured Suit
So vaunted are Sunspel’s polos, T-shirts, and underwear that folks too easily forget that the brand also excels in the “Suits as separates” clothing class. This time, that means you can pick up an unstructured linen blazer—pre-washed for added softness, we might add—and step into the sun knowing you’re shining in the same label as Daniel Craig’s Bond.
Corridor Checked Linen Suit
Ok, so you want your pattern to relax as much as your fabric? Enter: Corridor. This checked set is classic enough not to raise any eyebrows, but those close to you will take some joy in the faintly pink stripes running all the way down the check print. And while it’s designed for the warm months, there’s a touch of wool in it too, to keep the goosebumps away once the sun’s gone down.
Mr. P Unstructured Linen Twill Suit
The folks at Mr. Porter sift through a ton of product every day, and in many cases, their in-house line Mr. P represents the best of a category, something that can only be known after you’ve pored over the whole rest of the competition. And while the brand knows it may never be able to compete on suiting with the likes of a Cucinelli, in this case, it wisely decided to tackle the “casual linen suit” genre—with handsome, garment-dyed-for-softness results.
How We Tested
Linen suits are tricky to test firsthand—it’s not always reasonable to assume they’ll fit you perfectly right out of the hanging bag, and it’s damn-near impossible to land on one version that works for every body type. So before we began whittling down the list of our favorites, we thought back to all the linen suits we’ve known and loved recently, and what, exactly, differentiated one flaxen number from the other.