For most people, most of the time, the best fabric for suits is worsted wool. It breathes, holds a press, resists creasing and works across more of the year than almost anything else. Linen makes considerably more sense in high summer; flannel and heavier woollens earn their keep when the temperature drops; and black tie can call for cloth with a little more lustre and ceremony. 

Rather than getting lost among hundreds of swatches, consider four things: fibre, fineness, weight and weave. Together, they determine how a cloth feels, drapes, travels, ages and responds to the weather.

In this guide we cover:

THE CLOTHS AND WHAT EACH ONE DOES
WHAT SUPER NUMBERS ACTUALLY MEAN
WEIGHT, WEAVE AND DRAPE
WHAT TO WEAR IN AN AUSTRALIAN YEAR
WHERE WE SOURCE OUR CLOTH

A Super number can sound suspiciously like a score. It isn’t. 

In wool suiting fabric, Super numbers describe the fineness of the wool fibre according to an established classification system. Broadly, the higher the number, the finer the fibres used to meet that classification. This can produce a cloth with an exceptionally soft, smooth and luxurious handle. 

What it doesn’t mean is that Super 150s is automatically ‘better’ than Super 120s. In fact, for plenty of wardrobes, the opposite is true. Very fine wool tends to be more delicate. A beautiful Super 150s cloth may be exactly right for a suit worn to important dinners and occasions, but a poor choice for something expected to survive trains, office chairs, flights and two wears a week. 

For many people, the useful middle ground sits somewhere around Super 110s–130s: fine enough to feel elegant, but practical enough to enjoy without treating the suit as an exhibit. The question you need to be asking, then, isn’t: What is the highest Super number? It is: How often am I going to wear this suit? A fitter who knows the answer to that can steer you towards cloth you’ll still be pleased with after the novelty of its first touch has worn off.

WEIGHT, WEAVE AND WHY A SUIT DRAPES THE WAY IT DOES

Two wool cloths can contain essentially the same fibre and behave entirely differently. Weight and weave explain much of the difference.

WEIGHT

Fabric weight is generally expressed in grams per square metre. As a broad guide, lighter cloths are useful for warm weather and travel, mid-weight cloths cover the greatest portion of the Australian year, and heavier cloths provide greater warmth, body and structure. 

The temptation in Australia is to assume lighter is always better. Not necessarily. A little weight helps trousers hang cleanly, gives a jacket better drape and can improve durability. An extremely light business suit fabric may feel terrific on a hot afternoon but show wear sooner if asked to work five days a week. 

Think about where the suit will spend most of its life, rather than choosing solely for the hottest day it might encounter.

WEAVE 

Weave changes the surface, breathability and character of the cloth. Plain weaves are clean and straightforward, while Panama weaves have a more open structure that can help air circulate. Twill has a subtle diagonal line and tends to drape smoothly. Hopsack is open and textured, making it particularly useful for breathable jackets. 

Herringbone creates its familiar broken zigzag and brings quiet pattern to otherwise restrained cloth. Birdseye uses tiny contrasting dots to give a solid colour greater depth from nearby. Flannel has a soft, brushed finish rather than the crisp surface of a traditional worsted. 

You don’t need to learn the vocabulary before an appointment. Run a hand across the cloth, hold it up and see what it does. Much of the decision becomes considerably easier from there.

WHAT TO WEAR IN AN AUSTRALIAN YEAR

Australia does tend to complicate the traditional four-season approach to tailoring. A Melbourne July, a Brisbane February and a spring afternoon in Sydney have little business being treated as the same climate. The useful wardrobe responds to where you actually live.Australian tailoring needn’t pretend winter lasts six months. Choose for the life and climate the garment will actually encounter.

A January wedding in Perth is not the moment to discover that the beautiful heavy cloth chosen in an air-conditioned showroom has its own weather system. For a warm-weather wedding, breathability and weight deserve as much consideration as colour. 

Likewise, year-round office tailoring benefits from moderation. A good worsted wool can move from air-conditioned interiors to the street, recover overnight and return the next morning without complaint. If you travel regularly, resilience becomes even more important: a slightly textured or high-twist cloth will often emerge from a suitcase with considerably more dignity than something extraordinarily fine.

WHERE OUR CLOTH COMES FROM

P. Johnson carries European, British and Japanese cloths, including Australian superfine merino woven by specialist mills in the Biella region of northern Italy. Linens range from classic Irish cloth to softer Belgian and very light Italian options, while cottons come from specialist northern Italian and Japanese weavers. 

For Pronto tailoring, lengths of Italian, British and Japanese milled fabrics are held on site, with further cut-lengths available from European weavers. Sartoria K cloths are sourced as individual cut-lengths from Italy, the UK and Japan. 

Among the names currently represented are:

There is pleasure in knowing where a cloth came from, but the name on the bunch isn’t a shortcut to choosing well. A respected mill tells you something about provenance, consistency, weaving and finishing. It doesn’t tell you whether that particular cloth belongs on your back in Brisbane in January. 

The better decision begins with purpose: where you’ll wear the garment, how often, in what weather and how you’d like it to feel. Mill comes after that.

HOW CLOTH AFFECTS WHAT YOU PAY

Cloth is one of the biggest variables in the final cost of a custom suit. The chosen level of construction establishes the starting point; fibre, mill, fineness, rarity and cloth selection can move the investment from there. The most expensive option is not automatically the most useful one. See what a custom suit costs and how construction and cloth work together.

COME AND FEEL IT

Cloth is the part of tailoring that a screen cannot really capture. Weight, softness, texture and drape make considerably more sense between your fingers than they do in a photograph. Explore P. Johnson tailoring, or book an appointment at your nearest showroom and spend some time with the cloth books. 

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