Flannel clothing guide

When dressing for colder months flannel is definitely among the top three of our favorite fabrics to choose from.

Flannel fabrics are often made from cotton or wool with a loose weave and the technique that gives its characteristic almost fuzzy texture is called napping.

The garments offer a wide range of usage and almost endless combination possibilities. Flannel also keeps you warm and comfortable without compromising on the styling, hence one of the most popular fabrics for chilly seasons. Furthermore, the brushed fabric provides an almost unmatched casual elegance to the garments. A simple way to dress up and look sharp without looking too dressed up. And that’s something we all strive for, right?

These features are important as we naturally want you to get great use for your flannel garments.

Benefits of wearing flannel

• Staying warm
• Comfortable
• Easy to maintain
• Versatility – Many areas of use
• Timeless
• You’ll look awesome

You should start by looking at your existing wardrobe to find the pieces that you really love and want to build upon. Identify what colors, textures, and pieces you have in order to make a well-grounded decision on what color and garments to get.
We always say that you should reflect on how to get the most use out of your wardrobe. By choosing three different pieces of flannel you can cover a wide range of use with fewer garments. Our choice and recommendation for most people is to get a pair of beige flannel trousers, a brown flannel jacket, and the classic dark grey or charcoal flannel suit.

Things to consider when buying your first flannel piece (as with all clothing):

• For which occasions do you you wear it? Formal, casual or both?
• Which flannel colors look good on you and fit your wardrobe? If you don’t know, well that’s our job.
• Flannel is very versatile, choose the pieces that works well with the rest of your wardrobe.

The iconic flannel suit have been worn by men for ages. Characterized by its soft brushed surface its considered a true wardrobe icon. It’s traditionally made in heavier weight fabrics and worn with a dress shirt and tie. To make it feel more modern and contemporary we like to wear it casual and often in separates. One of the ways we like to style it is with denim and knitwear, with the odd flannel jacket in a slightly lighter weight fabric, for example a light beige flannel jacket. As for fabrics, we work with top Italian mills, which often produces flannel fabrics with a lighter weight than the English ones. A lighter weight fabric will still keep its structure really well and at the same time it’ll keep you warm.

When the regular dress shirt just isn’t doing enough to keep you warm at the office, opt for a crisp flannel shirt. We recommend light colored flannel in earthy tones like brown or beige flannel, preferably in light to medium weight fabrics (around 220-270gr). As always, versatility is key when choosing what color and design you should add to your wardrobe. Keeping it clean with a cutaway collar and no pockets is always a good way to start.

However, we highly recommend an off white or beige flannel shirt with the more pronounced kent collar and two western style pockets with snap buttons as an alternative! Check out all our casual shirts here.

The short answer is any time the weather and occasion allows for it, which for us in Sweden is most of the year (almost). A flannel suit and its separate pieces are suitable for a wide range of occasions, largely due to the rich texture that we mentioned earlier.

Worn as a full suit, a grey flannel suit could be worn on all formal occasions except in specific dress codes that says otherwise. When split up, the trousers and jacket could easily serve as wardrobe cornerstones for almost any casual outfit. Wearing it with your favorite knitwear for example. Since formality is often connected with lustrous fabrics we feel safe to say that a brown flannel jacket would not be interpreted as too formal even for a more casual workspace.

Choosing the color of your pieces is key to make your new garments versatile. If you’d like to be able to use them with a lot of your other garments then look through the color palette of your wardrobe and decide on a neutral color that fits well in the color palette. Darker brown flannel or charcoal flannel if you’re aiming towards darker colors. And if you rather go for lighter colors we can’t promote beige flannel enough. It’s a neutral color which makes it easy to combine with most other garments.

The beige flannel trousers are easily combined with a wide range of autumn and winter staples. The fabric comes from the Italian weaving mill Drago, the fabric is soft and highly comfortable to wear as a pair of dressed trousers. We would definitely say go for a lighter shade of beige. It may scare some people, but the fact is that it makes a strong contribution to making the trousers easy to match. In fact, you can easily go for light-colored pants, all year round. A general tip is that the trousers should be lighter than the jacket that is worn, which is why lighter trousers are often easier to combine with odd jackets. At the same time, there are always exceptions, and this is not a general truth. We love to wear light trousers together with a brown flannel jacket and a piece of knitwear in earthy tones. Furthermore, the beige flannel trouser is highly versatile in its area of use. It could be worn at home with a cashmere roll neck, or to the office with an odd jacket, white shirt, knitted tie, and a pair of black penny loafers.

A versatile odd jacket is a key item in every man’s wardrobe. For many, the choice falls on a blue or grey, but in this case, we rather want to highlight the brown flannel jacket. As with other flannel garments, the brushed surface contributes to versatile use. The brown shade is useful with most garments and in many situations. This makes the jacket easy to combine with beige trousers as well as a pair of grey suit trousers. Combining garments in earthy tones with each other is a conscious choice and expresses relaxed elegance, one of our personal favorites. The jacket also wears beautifully with a pair of denim or chinos, hence its versatility. Our recommendation is to design it as double-breasted with jet pockets, highly elegant and easy to wear in more casual settings as well as formal. With that said, the jacket is equally versatile with the 2,5 button closure if that is what you prefer.

It’s not possible to talk about flannel without mentioning the grey flannel suit, our favorite is the charcoal grey.

This fabric is sourced from the Italian mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, and as previously stated the Italian flannel fabrics tend to be a bit lighter in weight than the English ones. This fabric is no exception, the slightly lighter weight stretches the period that you could wear the suit even further.

As a suit, the dark grey is dark enough to combine with a white shirt and tie in formal contexts, or perhaps to dinner with a cashmere crewneck underneath. At the same time, it is light enough to combine the trousers with odd jackets and knitted sweaters. Of course, the jacket also works perfectly as a separate piece. The shade is perfectly balanced to get as much use out of your suit as possible.

The charcoal flannel suit has stood the test of time and will be there for you in many years to come. Thats is why we love it so much! A true classic that still feel fresh and relevant, especially when styled with knitwear.

In order to get as much use of your flannel suit, it is important to take care of it properly, as with all pieces of fine clothing. To read more about how you get the most out of your Blugiallo pieces head to our garment maintenance guide here.