It was warm for Easter in the Midwest today. I was thinking that my tweed lambswool blazer was going to be too warm if I went out anywhere today. I also knew that my linen trousers were ready for summer because I was sorting my closet. I was just fooling myself with my false expectations. My unofficial history records indicate that it won't be warm enough until mid May for those.

 

Tweets from January 4 to January 6. Linen from February 1 to December 15. Just kidding although I do live in Texas. Truth is I only own one tweed sport coat now and rarely wear it. Summers are often pretty hot so unless I will be in air conditioning the majority of the day, jacket comes off until I get back inside. I have never liked driving wearing a sport coat or jacket so always remove and hang when getting in the car.
I think in the post covid world you can pretty much dispense with the old rules in almost all circumstances.

 

Tweets from January 4 to January 6. Linen from February 1 to December 15. Just kidding although I do live in Texas. Truth is I only own one tweed sport coat now and rarely wear it. Summers are often pretty hot so unless I will be in air conditioning the majority of the day, jacket comes off until I get back inside. I have never liked driving wearing a sport coat or jacket so always remove and hang when getting in the car.
I think in the post covid world you can pretty much dispense with the old rules in almost all circumstances.

Another person in Texas, Austin to be specific, although I lived briefly in Dallas and twelve years in Houston. For the past decade plus, the patterns for winter and spring have been quite variable. Tweed had a good run this year, but linen felt right many days, too. I pick fabrics by temperature. I still leave the seersucker home until Labor Day. For linen and Madras I am more flexible. I often find a tweed jacket and tropical worsted pants a good combination. Flannel days are rare.

 

Here in Atlanta, tweed is really "winter only", maybe a rare chilly day in late autumn or early spring.

Temperatures? I'd say tweed is versatile from maybe 10-20C (50-68F) by itself, and you can layer over a sweater if you need warmer still.

Linen I like over maybe 25C (80ish F), so there IS a tweed/linen gap!

DH

 

For me, tweed is a maximum 65 degrees F and linen is minimum 75 degrees F.

 

i'd agree with that in terms of my comfort level, though I own no linen.

 

Up here in the PNW, tweed starts when the rain resumes to be replaced by poplin/linen/silk around June. I actually don't look at the thermometer. If it's bright and sunny, I stick my head outdoors. If's it comfortably warm, the tweed stays in the closet.

 

Tweed: Never

Linen: All year round

(I live in the South East UK, travel into London one or two days per fortnight)

 

I guess it also depends on the tweed. So below 15 degrees for tweeds such as Border or Shetland Tweed and below 10 for Harris Tweed.

Linen between 10 and 25 degrees.

 

Clearly I've been doing it wrong for years, sweltering in my tweed three-piece when it's hot, and shivering in my loose airy linen when the winter winds doth blow and crack my cheeks.

 

There was a woman that used to where a parka and gloves to our August meetings. It made sense as the inside temps in summer are extremely cold in many public buildings. So I think tweed, indoors, works year round around these parts. However I personally wear or carry a casual light jacket 10 months out of the year because a nice tweed paired with golf attire would look strange. Granted, unlike the Scots, I’ve never played a round of golf in a suit. I’m good at gauging the ridiculous looking.

 

As I recall, you are In Houston. When I lived in Houston the winter heating and the summer cooling were both extreme. My place of business was on the tunnel system, and my parking garage was likewise connected to the bank where I worked. So during the work day I was always indoors. It made little difference what I wore, but for the trip home in an un-air conditioned car. So I dressed for the drive. In those days Houston had colder winters, and wearing a flannel suit and topcoat, driving a top down roadster with the tonneau up over the passenger seat and the heater cranking on a really cold day, was exhilarating. That same drive when the temperature and the humidity were both very high was never all that great, even in seersucker.

 

It might be worth investigating a linen/tweed combo. I’m thinking pants that would go well with both and would work for cold or hot and muggy weather. So tweed is your indoor jacket and when you leave the building you just take it off? For the ladies, once outside, they just tie the tweed sleeves around their waist. For us men we need to find a more masculine carry alternative.

 

Here's how I do it. Hard to get more masculine than this:

 

 

Living in the S.F. Bay Area I let the shifts in temperature derermine the switch. Generally, the first cold or wet day in November and the first really pleasant day in April initiate the wardrobe change.