Choosing a everyday linen jacket

An unlined linen jacket is the most useful thing in a warm-weather wardrobe and the easiest to buy badly. Here is what to look at, in the order it matters.

Weight is the first decision

Anything under 200 grams a square metre will crumple like tissue and show every fold by lunchtime. Between 240 and 320 is the range that drapes, creases honestly and still breathes. Over 400 you are buying a coat.

The shoulder is the only thing you cannot alter

A tailor can take in a waist, shorten a sleeve and move a button. Nobody can rebuild a shoulder for a sensible price. Stand square in front of a mirror: the seam should sit where your arm starts, not past it, and the sleeve should hang without a dent below the seam.

Lining, or the absence of it

A half lining across the back keeps the jacket hanging properly without trapping heat. A full lining in a linen jacket defeats the point of the fabric. An unlined jacket shows its seams, so look at them: bound or felled seams are a sign that somebody expected you to see them.

Colour and how it ages

Undyed and natural linens fade gracefully; deep indigo and black do not, and a black linen jacket is grey in two summers. Mid-tones in oatmeal, olive and faded navy are the ones that still look deliberate after fifty washes.