Linen Redux: A Wrinkle in Time

Even Anne Hathaway knows. Linen pants wrinkle like nobody's business! This fabric is so comfy, so casual, and so wrinkly, and that latter quality is why so many people avoid it like the plague. I used to own linen dresses, which are by far the worst on the wrinkle embarrassment factor, and I dumped them because every time I stood up I felt like I looked as if I had been wearing the dresses all my life. Linen shirts aren't much better if they have long sleeves. Put on the shirt, move your arms once, and voila, you are wrinkled. The backs of linen shirts don't fare well, either. Same goes for suit jackets. Take a drive to work, and you might look like a hot mess by the time you get there. The same can be said of the linen pants. They wrinkle in the crotch. They wrinkle behind the knees. They might even wrinkle at the bottom if they are longer, palazzo style pants and you step on the hems.

Why the heck do we wear linen, then? As I said in the last post, we wear it because it is literally and metaphorically cool. We wear it because it makes us feel relaxed--as if we are not constricted by the workday, but free to choose what we do in the workday. Yeah.

How might we wear linen well, you might be thinking. How can we lessen, or at least endure, the linen wrinkles? Some pro-tips:

1. Don't assume that all linen is the same in quality. Some types of linen wrinkle more than others. Some are thicker, some thinner.

2. Don't assume that all linen fits the same. The looser the better = fewer wrinkles on the front. A tighter fit on the back decreases wrinkles.

3. Go for a patterned linen. I have two short-sleeved linen shirts with a plaid pattern. I have two pairs of linen pants, one in a sold and another in stripes. Stripes = fewer noticeable wrinkles. See the image below.

4. Re: #3, consider avoiding solids. If you deign to wear a solid, match it with a bright print. See previous blog post.

5. If you wear linen pants or a linen skirt, wear a loose-fitting shirt that covers the crotch. Crotch wrinklage is the worst. You don't want people's attention drawn to that area of your body. Likewise, wear a cool necklace. Eyes up here, everybody. Admire my flowy linen pants, but pay attention to my upper 1/4.

6. When you purchase anything of the linen persuasion wear it out and about before that big presentation day, OK? Know how much the item of clothing wrinkles. Decide if you are OK with that.