Hello. My name is Mr. Linen.
There is actually a good reason why I call myself Mr. Linen.
Among all fabrics, linen is my absolute favorite.
My knowledge and experience with clothing are still a work in progress, but when it comes to love for linen, I would say I can compete with anyone.
Among linen garments, I especially love linen suits, and my dream is to open a store dedicated entirely to linen suits someday.
So naturally, I also love linen shirts.
Many articles talk about the advantages of linen shirts—how cool they are, their natural deodorizing properties, how quickly they dry, and how the fabric actually becomes stronger with washing.
However, I feel that their disadvantages are rarely discussed.
So today, I would like to talk about the downsides of linen shirts.
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Disadvantage #1: Sheerness
I believe linen shirts have two major drawbacks.
Sheerness and wrinkles.
Let’s start with sheerness.
With any shirt fabric, whether your skin shows through when wearing it depends largely on the thickness of the material.
If the fabric is thick enough, even a linen shirt will not be see-through.
However, dress shirts worn under jackets are usually made from relatively thin fabrics.
And linen shirts are often made from even lighter fabrics than cotton shirts.
Darker colors are usually fine, but once you get into white or light blue, your skin can show through.
Seeing a bit of skin might not look inappropriate, but visible nipples are generally something people prefer to avoid.
The common solution is to wear an undershirt.
If you wear a beige mesh undershirt like UNIQLO’s AIRism, it can prevent nipples from showing through.
However, if you wear an undershirt under a linen shirt, even a beige one will often be visible through the fabric. Personally, I feel that’s not much better than seeing nipples.
Why Wearing Undershirts Isn’t a Solution
An undershirt can certainly be one solution, but personally I’m not a fan of wearing one with a linen shirt.
The reason is simple: it reduces the very things that make linen so great—its coolness and the pleasant feeling of not sticking to your skin.
AIRism dries quickly, but it still cannot compete with linen, which is a natural fiber.
Have you ever worn AIRism under a linen shirt on a very hot day and started sweating heavily?
Have you noticed how the AIRism layer sometimes takes longer to dry and starts to feel uncomfortable?
If you wear AIRism alone, or a linen shirt alone, both dry relatively quickly. But once you wear two layers, the inner layer especially tends to dry more slowly.
Of course, AIRism plus a cotton shirt is still more comfortable than that combination—but in my opinion, if you want to experience the full benefit of linen, wearing a linen shirt on its own is the best way.
Once you experience the comfort of wearing a linen shirt directly against your skin, it’s hard to go back.
How to Solve the Sheerness Problem
Even if wearing the shirt directly on the skin is ideal, we still haven’t solved the transparency issue.
There are two solutions: wear a jacket, or wear a shirt with chest pockets.
I suppose another option might be using nipple covers, but I personally don’t have the courage for that.
Wearing a jacket, of course, can be torture in the middle of summer.
If the only reason you’re wearing a jacket is to hide transparency, you might be better off just tolerating the slight discomfort of an undershirt.
So the jacket option is really only useful when you have to wear one anyway.
The other solution is to wear a shirt with chest pockets.
Both sides need pockets. Covering only one nipple doesn’t really solve the problem.
It’s all or nothing.
Here’s an article where I tried removing chest pockets and completely failed.
The downside is that shirts with chest pockets tend to look more casual.
However, if you’re wearing a shirt without a jacket in the summer, the outfit is already casual anyway. And since summer outfits tend to be simple, chest pockets can actually add a nice visual accent.
Depending on the color and pattern, a light-colored plain shirt with a reasonably slim silhouette can still be acceptable for business wear in many situations.
And once you put on a jacket, the chest pockets are hidden anyway.
This makes it possible to wear just the shirt most of the time and throw on a jacket only when meeting clients.
Disadvantage #2: Wrinkles
The second disadvantage of linen shirts is wrinkles.
Linen wrinkles easily—this is well known. In fact, it’s probably the only fabric where wrinkles are not only accepted but often considered beautiful.
I personally love the wrinkles of linen.
So why did I call them a disadvantage?
I believe linen wrinkles look elegant only when the fabric is relatively thick.
The large wrinkles that form on a thick linen suit can look wonderfully elegant.
But wrinkles on thin linen fabric tend to be small and crumpled, which doesn’t look as elegant.
If you wear a linen shirt by itself, starting with a freshly ironed shirt and then getting a few natural wrinkles from sitting or bending your arms can still look nice.
But if you cross your arms repeatedly or tuck the shirt into your trousers and pull it out again, it can quickly become quite wrinkled.
The worst situation is after wearing a jacket and then taking it off.
Look at the upper arm and elbow area in the photos.
The horizontal wrinkles around the elbow follow the natural movement of the body, so they’re fine.
But the vertical wrinkles around the upper arm don’t look particularly elegant to me.
How to Deal With Wrinkles
To be honest, there isn’t a perfect solution for this wrinkle issue.
The shirt in my photos has sleeves that are slightly wide for my arms, which may make vertical wrinkles more likely. A slimmer sleeve might reduce them somewhat.
Realistically, the only strategy I can think of is either not wearing a jacket at all—or wearing one but not taking it off.
Conclusion
I have reluctantly introduced the few disadvantages of linen shirts—almost like speaking badly about someone you actually love.
Sheerness can be solved with chest pockets, and wrinkles can be minimized by simply avoiding wearing a jacket.
Of course, the ultimate solution might be to gain the confidence to wear a thin white linen shirt and not worry about showing a little.
Maybe someday I’ll become that kind of relaxed old gentleman.
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