Bespoke · Mumbai
Linen shirts
The shirt for Mumbai heat, cut to your pattern.
Linen is the honest shirt
Linen is spun from flax, and flax breathes in a way cotton cannot: it moves air, dries fast and feels cool against the skin at the hottest hour. It also creases within minutes of being ironed. There is no linen that does not; anyone who sells you one is selling a blend. The crease is the point. A linen shirt that looks pressed at six in the evening is a shirt that has not been worn.
Fit is what separates a linen shirt that looks relaxed from one that looks slept in. A ready linen shirt is cut wide, so it balloons and the creases fall across the body. Cut to your shoulders and your chest, the cloth hangs straight and the creases fall at the elbow and the waist, where movement puts them. It reads as ease.
Pure linen or a blend
Pure linen for the weekend, for Goa and Alibaug, for a Sunday lunch, for a daytime wedding by the sea. A cotton-linen blend keeps most of the breath, creases far less, and is the better choice for an office that is not strict, worn under a linen blazer or on its own. We stock both in the swatch books and will say which one the shirt you are describing needs.
Colours that work here
White, and then pale blue: the two that go with everything and look right against the light. Sand, stone and oatmeal for the day. Navy and bottle green for the man who wants linen in the evening. A soft pink or a faded coral by the sea. Stripes in linen are quieter than they look on the swatch.
In practice
What we decide together
Weight
Light for the hottest months; a mid-weight linen keeps a better line and lasts longer.
Collar
A soft, unfused collar for linen, so it rolls rather than stands; a band collar for a bandhgala or an evening.
Fit
A touch easier than a cotton shirt through the body, never loose; the shoulder set on you.
Care
Wash cool, dry flat or on a hanger, iron damp if you iron it at all.
Book an appointment
A consultation costs nothing. Tell us the occasion and the date, and we take it from there.
Questions
What people ask us
Is a linen shirt suitable for the Mumbai office?
A cotton-linen blend in white or pale blue, yes, under a jacket. Pure linen reads as the weekend; wear it where that is right.
Does a made-to-measure linen shirt crease less?
It creases the same; the difference is where. A shirt cut to your shoulders falls straight, so the creases sit where the body moves and look intended rather than tired.
Linen or cotton for the heat?
Linen breathes more and creases more. A light Egyptian cotton poplin is nearly as cool and far crisper. For the sun, linen; for a meeting, the cotton.
Can I have a linen shirt and matching linen trousers?
Yes, cut from the same cloth or from two tones of it. See our page on linen trousers; worn together they make the easiest summer outfit a man can own.