The Best Breathable Summer Fabrics in Menswear

It’s hot out, sure, but that doesn’t mean you can only wear tank tops and workout shorts. I spent years doing that myself — how are you meant to dress “nice” when your only goal is to wear as little as possible? — But I’ve slowly amassed a collection of high-quality apparel that look and breathe well in hot weather.

To help guide us through the nuances of warm-weather fabrics, I met up with Peter from Peter’s Prism, a YouTube channel that emphasizes mature and stylish menswear. Mine focuses more on casual and durable stuff, so between the two of us, we put together a really solid guide to summer menswear. None of them are synthetic, either — we’ll explain why below.

This list starts with non-cotton fabrics and then it gets into a half dozen different kinds of cotton clothing that are great in the heat as well.

Linen

Linen is the undisputed king of summer wear: breathable, moisture wicking, quick drying, surprisingly strong, and more eco-friendly than cotton — it requires less water to produce.

“Some people don’t love linen because it wrinkles easily, but I think that’s part of the charm,” says Peter.

Linen looks worn with, well, other linen (see above) but its elegantly rumpled look works great with a range of textured fabrics like chambray, sateen, and others you’ll find on this list.

“I mix and match my linen pieces with almost any kind of cotton, and I think they work well together,” says Peter. “It only really looks incongruous with a very stiff denim, but I think it’s fine with distressed denim and most light colored fabrics.”

Good Linen Brands

• Flint and Tinder has dozens of linen products in classic American styles, plus there are as many 100% linen pieces as there are cotton-linen blends.
• Alex Crane is a brand that was once nothing but linen, and I’ve enjoyed making a casual “suit” from their five-pocket Cham pants and Kite chore jacket.
• Quince makes s huge range of products and I originally thought they made bedding — they do, but there’s also a range of apparel that Peter loves, including these elasticized linen pants.
• Proper Cloth makes made-to-measure clothing with a low price and a short wait time; Peter and I both have linen pieces from them. Mine’s a casual linen chambray shirt, but they also make a lot of suiting and business professional wear.
• Thursday Boot Co. is known for boots but I have one of their linen shirts and it’s great value.

What I like about linen

• Widespread and available in any style of clothing
• One of the most breathable fabrics on this list
• Great for casual and smart casual occasions

Downsides

• Wrinkles very, very easily
• Distinctive textured appearance can be hard to dress up

Hemp

Most people know hemp is very strong, but it’s less well known for its utility in summer: its porous structure and strong fibers allow better air circulation than similarly woven cotton.

It’s rare to find 100% hemp garments because they can be stiff, itchy, and expensive. Usually, hemp is blended with cotton or polyester to soften it up.

Good Brands for Hemp

• Taylor Stitch is the best place I’ve found that does 100% hemp that doesn’t itch, cost a ton, or make you look like you belong at Burning Man.
• Benzak Denim Developers have a commendable interest in using hemp blends in casual Americana; I love their hemp denim chinos.
• Flint and Tinder offers a lot of great value hemp clothing because they blend it with cotton, giving you a range of options for how much hemp you want to wear (and how much you want to spend).

What I like about Hemp

• Breathable; allows moisture to pass from the skin to its exterior
• Antibacterial; it both wicks sweat and reduces its stink
• Eco-friendly compared with cotton and synthetics

Downsides

• It’s hard to find 100% hemp clothing
• It’s expensive; consider blends
• Tough to find garments that aren’t hippy-dippy

Tropical Wool & Merino Wool

Wool for summer? Yep. People like wool because it insulates well, which means it keeps you warm in winter but it also keeps you cool in summer — if you pick the right kind.

“The standard suiting fabric is wool, and it’s applicable for winter as well as summer,” explains Peter. “You can wear it all year round.”

Another big bonus for wool is that it’s antibacterial and anti-odor, which is why a lot of brands use it for travel clothes — it can be worn a lot before it starts to stink.

Personally, I have a mild sensitivity to wool, so if a fabric is more than 50% wool it’s to itchy for me. Proof’s pants that I’m wearing above are 47% wool and they feel fine, but their shirts have a higher percentage and I can’t. Alas!

But wool isn’t just for technical clothes; it’s popular on suits, even for summer. Just look for terms like superfine and tropical wool.

“Superfine merino wool is infinitely breathable, very fast drying, and apparently very forgiving,” says Peter.

Good Brands for Wool

• Wills specializes in higher quality fabrics that include cashmere and merino wool, but they use it in both dressy and casual pieces like my cotton-cashmere polo.
• Proof makes technical clothes for outdoor activities and travel that emphasize wool; they’re best known for their 72-hour line but their Air Shirts are extra breathable for the heat.
• Proper Cloth do made-to-measure tropical wool suits in a wide range of colors.
• Unbound Merino have a strong reputation for their casual staples made of superfine merino wool.

What I like about Wool

• Regulates temperature in the heat and the cold
• Antimicrobial; suppresses your BO for longer than other materials
• Doesn’t wrinkle

Downsides

• Some people find it itchy, including myself; fortunately you can get a lot of its benefits even when a fabric isn’t 100% wool
• Expensive; it’s considered a premium material

Best Cotton Fabrics for Summer

Cotton is used in some 75 percent of all clothes made on Earth. You can get turn it into ultra thick and stiff denim, or into gauzey, open weaves that air breezes right through.

Good cotton fabrics for hot weather include seersucker, sateen, poplin, and chambray, which I’ll discuss below. It’s also important to note that cotton is often blended with other materials, including those in the first section of this list: it’s not hard to find cotton-linen, cotton-hemp, and even cotton-wool blends that are great for summer.

What I like about cotton

• Available in every level of weave and weight you can think of
• Can be used for both pants and shirts, casual and dressy
• Cheaper than linen, wool, hemp, etc

Downsides

• Absorbs moisture and doesn’t dry quickly; those are the main issues here
• So widespread and takes so many forms that it’s hard to know if you’re getting something optimized for your use case

Seersucker

“Seersucker is a puckered cotton fabric, and the puckering helps it stay away from the skin and dry more quickly and keep you cooler,” says Peter. “It’s a looser weave fabric, so it’s great for the summertime.”

I was surprised to learn that seersucker is 100 percent cotton because it looks like something synthetic, but it all come down to the puckered texture: it means it doesn’t stick to your skin.

It has an old-timey reputation, often associated with Southern gentlemen in straw hats, but today it’s a surprisingly practical summer option that comes in a range of products.

Good Brands for Seersucker

• Flint and Tinder have pretty affordable seersucker; I’m wearing their suit above, but you can just wear those chinos with anything. Peter’s wearing Engineered Garments, but they don’t sell directly to customers (where do I link?!) and they aren’t making seersucker anymore. Not right now, anyway!
• Gustin takes top-notch fabrics from around the world, including seersucker, and cuts and sews them in the USA. They’re made to order so they don’t always arrive quickly, but the price is right.
• J. Crew has a limited selection of short-sleeved seersucker shirts that are under $100.

Poplin

The Oxford Cloth Button Down (“OCBD”) is an ideal shirt for almost any level of dressiness, but it’s too burly for hot weather. That’s where poplin comes in.

“Cotton poplin is a summer alternative to the heavier Oxford cloth,” says Peter. “It’s infinitely cooler and thinner, and it just feels nicer against the skin.”

If you’ve picked up a tropical wool or seersucker suit for summer and you’re not sure what to wear underneath it, linen can look too casual — poplin is just right.

“I like to compare it to nice percale bed sheets,” explains Peter. “In the summer, it just feels nicer, and it’s a lot more forgiving in terms of heat. Especially if you’re somebody who gets overheated, and you want to layer a jacket over your shirt.”

It’s not as common as some of the other fabrics here, but if you need to look polished in the heat, a poplin shirt is a top choice.

Good Brands for Poplin

• Sid Mashburn has one of the largest selections of poplin we could find; they lean a bit preppy, but it’s to be expected.
• Charles Tyrwhitt is a British brand with a wider array of poplin for any style.
• Buck Mason win for trousers; their poplin chinos are just 5.5 ounces in weight.
• J. Crew has a decent selection of more affordable poplin shirts and trousers.

Gauze

Gauze is a lightweight cotton fabric, sometimes made of two or three layers loosely stitched together. It’s airy, breathable, and very soft. When it has an extra layer or two it keeps it from being too transparent, and it has a bonus of looking textured like linen but without being as wrinkle-prone.

Good Brands for Gauze

• Naked and Famous sells casual double gauze Easy Shirts in a range of colors. I love my “Juniper” green one you see here.
• Hiroshi Kato has a fantastic selection of gauze shirts as well; I wore their light indigo Ripper for many summers.

Open Weave Knits

Knit fabrics are soft, breathable, and great for airflow in summer. They can also come in almost any fabric; the Sunspel one I’m wearing above is all cotton, but the Flint and Tinder one below is a cotton-linen blend.

“Especially when you have linen, cotton, or silk cotton knit, they’re a little more thick and voluminous than you might expect for summer wear,” says Peter. “But you do want that separation so that air can flow between your skin and your clothes.”

Good Brands for Knits

• Sunspel is world famous for their Riviera polo, made from a cotton mesh. James Bond wears it!
• Flint and Tinder is getting a lot of mentions in this list, I know, but they do have a good range of well priced open weave knits.
• Taylor Stitch‘s Playa shirts are great casual button ups made from organic cotton.
• Portugese Flannel sells a wide range of loose knits that are perfect for warmer weather.

Sateen

“Sateen was used for military fatigues with patch pockets,” explains Peter. “It was a staple of jungle warfare. It dries very quickly, feels very cool against the skin, and it’s very durable.”

Sateen is best known for being used on fatigues, which might be the most casual pants in the world, but some brands also use it for chinos and more smart casual fare.

“What I love about sateen is the cool horizontal stripe effect in the weave, which is not noticeable at a distance, says Peter. “But when you get up close, you can absolutely see the texture.”

Good Brands for Sateen

• Benzak Denim Developers makes a great selection of sateen chinos that can dress up quite nicely.
• Left Field NYC make banger sateen chinos for guys looking for something more casual.
• Orslow is a Japanese brand that’s probably the best known for sateen fatigues.

Chambray

Chambray is a cotton fabric that’s usually composed of blue and white yarns, so it’s often mistaken for denim. But because it’s a plain weave fabric it can be made at lighter weights, and it’s a great fabric for summer.

Because it alternates white and colored threads, it has a textured look that goes great with linen.

Brands like Flint and Tinder and Naked and Famous produce excellent lightweight chambrays perfect for warm weather. Peter is wearing Amazon’s Essentials Chambray Shirt, which is only about $21.

Good Chambray Brands

• Proper Cloth gives you the option of customizing your chambray shirt to a dressier or more casual level, and they often have non-blue colors on offer.
• Grown and Sewn make one of my favorite chambray shirts; it’s just 6 ounces, half the weight of denim jeans.
• Amazon Essentials has a chambray shirt that became Peter’s most worn — and least expensive.

Lightweight Denim

Most jeans are made of denim that clocks in at around 12 ounces per square yard, but each year, Naked & Famous releases jeans between 9 and 11 ounces, and it makes a difference in summer.

Annoyingly, the lineup changes every year, so I can’t recommend my most worn summer denim: their 9.5oz Blue Bird from 2023. But the wider jeans I’m in above are the 10oz High Noon, which does the job just as well.

Weight isn’t the only factor for comfortable summer clothes: you also want a fit that’s not too tight. That’s why I’m trying the wide leg Strong Guy fit in my High Noons above; wider legs mean more air flow.

Good Brands for Lightweight Denim

• Naked and Famous: every year the fabrics are different, but if you look for one that’s under 11 ounces, you’ll be happy.
• Hiroshi Kato have a popular 10.5 ounce stretch jean; the addition of stretch reduces the breathability, but 10.5oz is so lightweight that it still works well.
• 3Sixteen makes it easy to filter for lightweight denim, and they have a decent selection of fits.
• Left Field NYC has this cool “Jelt” denim that was developed by Lee in 1925 to have the strength of 13oz denim at a weight of just 11.5oz.

Chambray vs Denim

Chambray uses a plain weave, while denim uses a twill weave. As a result, chambray tends to be lighter and more breathable, while denim tends to be heavier and more durable, though you can technically make heavy chambray and thin denim.

For hot weather, chambray is usually a better option. Lightweight denim options (around 9-10 oz per square yard) are also sold, but they’re rare. A good solution? Lightweight denim pants and lightweight chambray shirts. They match great!

The Problem with Polyester and Nylon

• Synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon rarely breathe as well as natural fabrics
• Unless developed to be anti-stink, they tend to hold onto smells

“Make sure your fabrics aren’t full of polyester,” explains Peter. “If you’re looking for something that’s a little cooler, look for blends that are cotton, linen, silk, cotton. These will help you stay cooler.”

Synthetics like polyester and nylon are common in clothes to help them keep their shape and lower cost, but these fabrics are usually poor choices for summer unless specially engineered. An example of a good synthetic for summer is Wellen’s Airweave, which is perforated for air flow.

Wrapping Up

I hope this helps you navigate the world of warm-weather fabrics and summer clothing. There’s something out there for you, from super casual linen and functional wool blends to classier and more out-there fabrics like seersucker and poplin.

Thanks to Peter for helping with this deep dive into breathable summer fabrics! Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more casual and durable wear guides.