Why Linen Endures

Of all the fibres that have accompanied human civilisation, linen stands apart. It is one of the oldest textiles known — flax fibres found in prehistoric caves suggest we have been spinning and weaving them for over thirty thousand years.

And yet linen has never become antiquated. It has never needed reinvention. Each decade it returns, carried by those who understand that certain things need no improvement — only continued use.

A Fabric That Lives

Linen's defining quality is not its coolness in summer, though it is remarkably cool. It is not its tensile strength, though linen is stronger than cotton. Its defining quality is this: linen improves with wear.

Fresh linen has a slight stiffness, a formality. After washing it softens. After years of use it becomes something extraordinary — a second skin, lived-in and irreplaceable. No other fabric transforms in this way.

On Wrinkles

Linen wrinkles. This is not a flaw. The wrinkle in linen is the wrinkle of a life being lived — evidence of movement, of sitting in the sun, of hours passed in good company. To iron linen into submission is to misunderstand it.

Wear your linen wrinkled. Let it tell the story of your day.