Linen is the honest answer to Singapore’s climate, and the cloth most men have been let down by. Too light and it has collapsed into creases by lunch; too stiff and it wears like a tablecloth. Everything on this commission depended on finding a linen with enough body to hold a tailored shape through a hot day.

Solbiati’s Art du Lin is 100% linen, woven in Italy from a twisted three-ply yarn — three strands twisted together before they go on the loom. That twist is the whole point. It gives the cloth spring and weight in the hand, so it creases less than a single-ply linen and recovers better when it does. It will still crease; it is linen, and we would not want it otherwise. But the creases soften into the cloth instead of setting like folds in paper.

The colour is terracotta, a warm earth that reads rich in daylight and quiet under a lamp. It is easier to wear than it sounds: with cream or white trousers it is summer in the Mediterranean sense, with navy or olive it becomes an everyday jacket.

The jacket is unlined, which is the traditional choice for heat — nothing between you and the cloth but air. Most unlined jackets are also unstructured, and that is where they lose their shape. We kept full canvas through the chest so the lapel rolls and the front hangs cleanly, and because there is no lining to hide behind, the inside of this jacket is finished to be seen.

It is a sport coat, not half a suit, and the details say so. A notch lapel and two buttons. Patch pockets with flaps at the chest and hips, sitting on top of the cloth in the country way. And a double slit vent, so it moves with you and lets the heat out behind.