The best summer blazers for men will help you keep cool, but they’ll also look so good you might find yourself RSVPing yes to your second cousin’s bachelor party purely for the chance to wear ’em. The difference between a scuzzy wool joint and a slubby linen number isn’t just aesthetic: only the latter will help prevent heatstroke when you’re sweating through said cousin’s reception in July.
A few key characteristics distinguish summer blazers from their cold-weather counterparts. The silhouette should be light and loose to encourage air flow and a breezier wearing experience. Look for unstructured, unlined, or partially-lined jackets when you can; applied to the wrong material, a full lining feels toastier than a retirement home, so double-check your blazer’s underpinnings before you smash the buy button.
But the most important differentiator is the most obvious one: fabric. A tropical wool can work in the summer, but if you’re chasing Josh-O’Connor-in-La-Chimera levels of cool, opt for a time-tested natural alternative like cotton, linen, or seersucker. Cotton is far less insulating than wool; linen is more breathable than a screen door; and seersucker—a specific weave of cotton prized for its puckered look and dandyish vibe—has been keeping stylish folks shvitz-free for literal centuries. Below are 18 of our absolute favorite summer blazers for men, each ready and raring to help you clean up, class up, and suit up like a certified style god.
The Best Summer Blazers, Sorted by Fabric
Linen Blazers
If ever there was a fabric ready-made for summer, it’s linen. And man, has linen hit primetime. It’s not that the fabric was all that hard to find in the past, but in 2024, it’s positively everywhere—which is fantastic news for anyone trying to dress up right now. Not only is linen super breathable, the hotter it is outside, the more breathable it becomes. (Science!) These days, there’s a linen jacket for every style, budget, and occasion—which means it’s trickier than ever to land on just one…so we cherry-picked six of ‘em.
Seersucker Blazers
Seersucker is a centuries-old cotton fabric ubiquitous in the world’s hottest climates, despite the host of synthetic challengers (and technological innovations) that have arisen since. It weighs practically nothing, and its telltale puckered stripes lift the fabric away from the skin, increasing air flow in the process. Apply those features to a blazer, and what you’re left with is lightweight, airy, and looks a heckuva lot like a quintessential summer suiting staple.
Cotton Blazers
Sometimes, you need a summer blazer that can handle a little wear and tear. A blazer that can dougie as easily as it can cha-cha slide—and still roll through to the office the next morning looking a lot better than your legs feel. We’re talking, of course, about a crisp, classic, cotton blazer, the kind Italian style gods (and this very magazine) have been turning to for decades. A polished twill will always look great—and seersucker, as evidenced above, is damn-near unbeatable—but those aren’t the only cottons worth exploring. Poplin, for example, offers a beautiful finish and the added benefit of weighing next to nothing; washed-down canvas will wear like your softest shirt. The right cotton blazer will play nice with a rumpled button-up and silk knit tie, but the best of the genre tend to look even better paired with a knit polo and cuffed khakis—which is exactly what you should wear the next time an RSVP leaves you puzzled.
Read the full article here