It’s summertime, the season of casual style. As such, there are some fabrics you should be seeking out, and putting on. One of them is chambray. Don’t know it? Sure you do. It’s all around, albeit sometimes poorly executed (and you know how we feel about poor execution, yes you do). Chambray has a rich and storied history. Simply put, it’s fine, lightweight fabric that’s woven with white threads across a colored warp. What’s a warp? Well, the warp threads combine with the weft threads to give fabric its inherent characteristics. Want to read more about this? Good.

Chambray takes it name from the town of Cambrai, in Northern France, where the fabric was first designed, and used to create sun bonnets. It’s perhaps most famous as a workwear fabric, though not as famous as another French fabric offering in that vein, serge de Nimes. You know: denim.

Meanwhile, what I’ve been loving on are the modern offerings of chambray. Few fabrics have such a wonderful ability to evoke a range of texture and history all at once. Chambray is like denim made for summer. It’s lighter than most denim, less formal than seersucker and yet it has a certain elegance and style that fits perfectly with the warmer days and casual vibe of this season. Like many elements of contemporary workwear, the Japanese are doing the most masterful offerings. That selvedge detail pic? That’s from my shirt, the one I’m wearing all the time, bocce ball in one hand and a michelada in the other.

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When I was a kid I really only dreamed of achieving professional status in two sports: cycling and soccer. I was a teenager with moderate talent, but nothing noteworthy. I was certainly not going to be a pro athlete. But, for all the sports I participated in, from surfing to BMX to basketball, it was soccer and cycling that had me in their grip.

I played goalkeeper on the field, and on the bike, well I just rode. I didn’t know if was a sprinter or climber or time-trialist yet (um, yeah, still not clear on that, except at 6’3”, 175 lbs, I am no pure climber). All I knew was there was a style in those sports that everything else I did lacked. Except, frankly, bodysurfing, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Those were the sports I watched, when I could (this was before the interwebs and super-cable), and the players and riders that captivated my imagination. And they still are. So much so that today, when I saw this photo of Inter Milan coach Jose Mourhino in the New York Times, I couldn’t help but smile. Nowhere else but European soccer could a coach look this good. Better than his players, even.

Can you imagine any US coach (basketball, baseball, football, whatever) rocking an Armani scarf on the sideline? No fucking way. That, right there, is who I wanted telling me what to do.

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