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The Game-Changing Summer Shirts from Knickerbocker
The cotton Lola shirt in the color bone is one of the most beautiful shirts that I have ever seen. This and the cotton linen Highway shirt changed how I view summer clothing because I’ve never been good at dressing in the summer – we have proof of that. But I think I finally cracked the code.
Both of these are from a brand called Knickerbocker. They are made in Portugal, and they have amazing mother of pearl buttons, which, fun fact, mother of pearl is exactly what it sounds like. An oyster wraps it around sand and makes a pearl.
This should be a pretty good article because I feel like I cracked the code for how to dress in the summer, and it’s not like how I usually dress.
There’s a lot of stuff on this list from Knickerbocker, not because they sent me anything for free but because I went on a little shopping spree because they sent me a 20% off coupon.
Let’s Talk Fabric: The Cotton Lola and Highway Shirts
First up is the shirt that I actually may have ruined – I don’t think I ruined it. But this is the Cotton Lola shirt from Knickerbocker, 98% cotton, 2% elastane.
It’s essentially like a toned-down version of seersucker fabric, which has some waves to it, so it stays lifted off of your body and keeps you cooler, and doesn’t let sweat stick to it as much. But really, this is one of the two shirts, both of them being from Knickerbocker, that made me realize what I was missing in my summer outfits. We’ll get into that later.
The next shirt is also from Knickerbocker. This next shirt is the cotton and linen Highway shirt again from Knickerbocker, which is probably my favorite item on the list by far.
It’s unbelievable. The fabric is unbelievable, and it’s a pleasure to iron, which we’ll get into in a second. It feels beefy but airy. Everything I could possibly want in a summer shirt is here. 80% cotton, 20% linen. I’m kind of glad about that because it wrinkles less easily, but it still wrinkles a lot.
This isn’t really like a summer essential, it’s actually quite hot, but on summer nights it’s kind of important sometimes if you’re going to a formal event like a wedding in Italy, which I did.
This is the beefy cotton Oxford button-down. I’ve learned that it’s called a button-down because there are buttons where you can button the collar down. The two other shirts I’ve mentioned so far are Camp collar shirts that are splayed open.
Short-sleeved button-up shirts, in general, are a lot cooler than T-shirts, at least in my experience, because you can get fabrics that lift off of your body and let things breathe better, but you can also open up the collar and let more air in if you need.
Fun fact: I didn’t realize this until I was 25–26. I’m 27 now.
The only thing I don’t know if I really like or if I really don’t like is the monogrammed Knickerbocker initials on the bottom because you would typically put your initials there, so it’s another brand’s. Still, some people may think it’s your name. Not a huge deal, but still.
The Great Pants Debate: Linen vs Cotton
Okay, then things get a little interesting because I have two pairs of linen basket pants in brown and black from Knickerbocker, and I do really like them, but the issue is they’re 10-ounce fabric, and it’s 80% cotton, 20% linen, which I like because it makes the fabric feel a little bit more rigid unless you get to really heavy linen.
But then you’re left with this mix that you kind of have to decide how you want to go about it. Linen wrinkles, cotton wrinkles, but usually the wrinkles can come out just by the weight of the cloth moving around, so the wrinkles come out after a little bit for the most part, not 100%.
So, I ideally would want to steam them, but I tried it with a steamer, and it doesn’t really work because the fabric is just too heavy; nothing really relaxes. So I tried to iron it, but it’s still difficult to iron. These pants are still a little wrinkled, and I worked on ironing them for a long time.
Granted, I’m not a good ironer yet, but the convenience does go down a lot when you mix these two heavier fabrics together for the summer.
So then you could go the other way and get a much lighter shirt like J. Crew‘s linen shirts, for example, which are nice shirts, but they are very, very, very thin, so they don’t hold their structure really at all, and that is the definition of what you probably think when people say linen is very wrinkly – it becomes a wrinkled mess.
But personally, I would rather have a more structured shirt that gives me a better, crisp look for a longer amount of time than a very, very, very loose and flowy linen shirt.
We’re going to take a quick stop in the world of footwear, going formal and then going less formal, but there’s this brand, Velasca. I’ve seen their ads on Instagram for a long time.
I like their aesthetic because it reminds me of Cape Cod in the fall, which is where I’m from, even though these are completely handmade in Italy. A long story short, they reached out to me and said, “Hey, what’s your address? We’re just going to send you some things,” and I said, “Okay!”
And then I wore their Derby shoes to a wedding – I didn’t actually wear them when I was officiating the wedding, but I did wear them on the day before the wedding, and they’re fantastic. On the day of the wedding, which I also recommend you get, I wore Allen Edmonds Leeds Plain Toe Blucher.
I wore those which are slimmer and dressier, but the derbies from Velasca are very, very wide to the point where I would suggest you probably want to size down one at least. They’re fantastic shoes, and they’re a little formal, which is the whole thesis of this article.
And while on the subject of footwear, I am currently wearing my Adidas Gazelles. I bought these specifically for Italy, and the color of them that I’m wearing is called pre-loved red.
I got them for Italy because there is a brand, or there was a brand called Roy Denim, and the founder was named Roy Slaper, but he has his Instagram picture where he’s walking in an all-down outfit in red shoes, and I think about that all the time so that’s why I got these shoes.
The OAS Brand and Textile Talk
And then we have the shirts, but the entire brand does this, so I should just say the brand. This brand makes shirts with crazy textiles and crazy textures. I’m wearing one of their terry towel shirts right now. I have another one in a different color pattern. I have one more that’s this really fascinating weave. It’s not a box weave. I don’t even know what weave it is, but it feels like a robe at a hotel. It’s amazing, and the brand is OAS.
This is splitting decidedly between the more formal stuff from Knickerbocker that you could get away with kind of at night if you’re going out to more casual stuff that you could wear if you’re chilling by the pool or something like that.
The Sock and Shorts Situation
Okay, next up are shorts and socks. These are always linked. Depending on which shorts you wear dictates what socks you should wear. A tale as old as time. Either way, American Trench sent me a bunch of socks because they’re great socks. The retro stripes are awesome, and the wool merino socks are awesome – not because I got them for free but because they are kind of iconic in the sock world.
And then for shorts, we have Wellen from Huckberry. It’s a house brand, and the shorts are fantastic. They are a great deal. However, if I could do it again, I would say my best advice with shorts is to look at the length that you think you want and then go two inches higher on your inseam.
That’s my only mistake – I think these shorts are a little too long, and if I went just a tiny bit shorter, they’d be okay.
T-Shirts and the Big Summer Style Revelation
Okay, I know you’ve been waiting for this since I mentioned that this article was about how to dress in the summer. It’s T-shirt time. I figured something out about T-shirts this year, but I’ll get on that in a second. I got a bunch of shirts from Imogene and Willie, which I’ve reviewed before, and I changed my thoughts.
I still wish that the fabric of these shirts was a little different, and I wish that the collar had a heavier rib and not really the same texture as the shirt – that would have been better built. But I really like quirky phrases on shirts. I think it’s so funny, it’s so fun, and it adds a little bit of edge to an outfit, which I found to be something that I really want all the time.
Very rarely do I feel stylish or cool in the summer. I usually wear a t-shirt and shorts, and a lot of times, I just end up feeling like a dweeb. Then I’m like, “I don’t look cool,” but last summer, the big revelation was two things: formalizing and tailoring. In the fall or winter, you can get away with being less formal because you have a jacket where you can show your personality, or you have a sweater or something like that kind of inherently gets more formal, and you’re covering yourself up, and oversized looks are okay.
As it gets warmer, you lose a lot of things where you can show like “Hey, I’m really into denim” or “I’m really into this cool jacket,” but stepping up that dress level – boom. And on that note, if you decide to formalize in summer, the other thing you have to do is make sure your formalized clothes fit really, really well.
What I’m trying to get at is if you’re going to formalize in summer a little bit, you should tailor your clothes, bring them to the tailor so they fit you perfectly, and show off that smoking hot summer bod. Knickerbocker was the key to me figuring that out because the first two shirts that I talked about are cropped probably for most people, but I’m not a very tall person. I have a small torso, so it doesn’t look that cropped, but what it does look like is really well-fitted, and when I put those two shirts on, I feel like a million bucks. It’s because the fit is immaculate, and the formalization makes me feel cool anyway.
Watch This Review
Goodbye!
Anyway, I hope this article helped you somewhat with how to dress in the summer. Bye bye!
This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.