Massimo Alba Felix Trousers

Gauze is a loose, open weave, and the openness is the point. A conventional lightweight cotton gets thin by using less yarn, which makes it flimsy and slightly transparent. A gauze keeps the yarn and spaces it out, so you get a cloth with body and a crinkled, dry surface that never sticks to the skin, because most of what is against your leg is air. It is one of the oldest solutions to heat and still one of the best.

Built as a drawstring trouser with no fastening beyond the cord, this becomes about as unstructured as a trouser gets while still being a trouser rather than a pyjama. Fango is the right colour for it. Mud, in translation, and a brown with enough grey in it to keep company with white, indigo, and black without becoming a statement.

Hot-weather trousers are usually linen and usually crumple into nothing by three in the afternoon. Gauze does not, and this is the pair we found that gets the waistband right too.

One hundred percent cotton gauze, made in Italy. Drawstring waist. Colour: Fango.

A drawstring waist means the fit is yours to set, so take your usual size and adjust rather than sizing for the waistband. The cloth has a crinkled surface by construction, so it will not press smooth and is not meant to. It relaxes with wear across a day and comes back in the wash.

With the Kos collarless pop-over or the Bowles shirt, worn out. With sandals in high summer and with a plain sneaker otherwise. Fango against white is the cleanest version.

Wash cool, hang to dry, and do not iron the crinkle out, because that is the cloth and not a wrinkle. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

The Ionio2 Trouser in Ferro is the linen trouser, the Kevin Shorts are the linen shorts in the same colour, the Kos Collarless Pop-Over is the linen and cotton shirt, and the Bowles Shirt is the printed cotton. There is more on the house on the Massimo Alba designer page. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.