Field Testing Quarterly
Summer Wardrobe Staples September 2023: the wrinkled white hemp shirt
These last days of summer heat are heading to an end soon. So will the days of wearing lightweight summer shirts. During the last two or so months I used and abused my go-to shirt for everything, be it a hike in the mountains or a pint with friends, my trusty companion for everything, my white hemp shirt from 1stpat-rn. Lightweight, thermoregulatory, and at the same time sturdy, resistant to the kind of abuse that inevitably happens when you’re out for a daylong hike on narrow mountain trails or at the pub with your favorite crowd.
Every few days I just put it in the washing machine, took it out drying in the sun and wore it that same evening again for a relaxed aperitivo. No ironing needed. Indeed I refused to iron it for as long as possible, that is, until the creases began to be of hindrance when buttoning the shirt. This sounds blasphemous for some but it was an interesting experience and a challenging game to play for me. It really meant embracing a new frontier, doing something against a mostly unwritten rule in the menswear cosmos. The look of tidiness that only a freshly ironed white shirt can show off, is obviously not considered here. As some already found out about ironing clothes: ironing seems to be a purely social contrivance. Although some research you can find online says that it’s beneficial to the longevity of a garment, it realigns the fibers, and so on. But if it’s really a mere social formality, then, why bother spending an hour on Sunday evening on ironing the shirts for the week to come? I have to admit, on some Sunday evenings you’ll find me ironing shirts: because my mother did it, because it makes me feel different, when wearing that ironed shirt, because some occasions require it.
I think there’s two factors involved, when opting for ironing or not ironing a shirt. Firstly when we wear shirts made of a lighter cloth like linen or hemp during the hotter summer days, we usually wear them slightly oversized and untucked, to optimize the airflow and consequent cooling on our body, hence the shirt drapes differently and won’t require ironing after every wash. Secondly the hot steam coming from the iron itself is a challenge during summer, even for those that need that ironed tidiness. For me therefore ironing is definitely an autumnal and winterish activity, and works best on a cotton shirt