Hold a linen shirt up to a window and some light will come through it. Hold up a cotton shirt of the same weight and the same thing happens. The question most people are really asking, when they ask whether linen is see-through, is a different one: will this garment show more than I intend when I am wearing it, outdoors, in the sun. The honest answer is that it depends on four things, all of which can be judged before a garment is chosen, and none of which is a defect in the fibre.

The first is weight. Linen is woven across a wide range, from gauze-like handkerchief cloth to heavy upholstery. Shirting sits in the lower middle of that range: light enough to move air, substantial enough to hold a collar. Below a certain weight any natural cloth becomes sheer, and very light linens are made deliberately for scarves and beach covers where that is the intention. A linen shirt of proper shirting weight is not sheer. The Journal's guide to linen weight sets out the range.

The second is the weave, and it matters more than weight. Flax yarn is naturally irregular, slightly thicker in some places than others, which gives linen its texture. If the yarns are set loosely, the spaces between them are large, and light and outline pass through. If they are set closely and evenly, the cloth is opaque at the same weight. This is one of the plain differences between ordinary linen and fine linen. A long, well-combed flax fibre spins into a smoother, more regular yarn, which can be woven more densely without becoming stiff. It is among the reasons PP works in certified Belgian linen.

The third is colour, and here the rule is simple. White and the palest tones transmit the most light. Mid tones and deeper colourways transmit very little. A White linen shirt worn over bare skin in strong sun will show some shadow of what is beneath it; so will a white cotton poplin. Oyster, Vanille, Oatmeal and Beige Cream, which carry a little warmth, are noticeably more forgiving than pure White. Dubarry, Dark Blue, Violet and Hibiscus are, for all practical purposes, opaque. The linen shirt colour guide considers the palette more fully.

The fourth is the light itself, and it is the one most often forgotten. A garment is at its most transparent when the light is behind the wearer: standing in a doorway, walking with a low sun at the back, photographed against the sea. The same garment, lit from the front, shows nothing. This is true of every light-coloured woven cloth, and it is why a shirt that seemed entirely opaque in a fitting room can surprise on a beach at five in the afternoon. It is not the shirt that has changed.

Fit plays a part as well. Cloth that is pulled tight against the body shows the body; cloth that stands away from it does not. Linen has a natural crispness that holds it off the skin, and a garment cut with room makes use of that. The air between cloth and skin is what keeps linen cool, and the same space diffuses any outline. An easy cut is doing two jobs at once.

In practice, then. For men, a White linen shirt is worn without concern almost everywhere; those who prefer more cover choose Oyster or Vanille, or wear the shirt over nothing darker than their own skin tone. PP linen shorts and trousers in pale colourways are worn with undergarments close to skin tone, not white, which is the detail that makes the difference. White beneath white is more visible than nude beneath white. The garments are in the men's linen collection.

For women, the same principle holds with a little more attention. The Amelia linen dress shirt in Lemon, Pink, Blue or Oyster is commonly worn over swimwear at the beach, where a degree of translucency is part of the ease of the garment. Worn alone in town, or for a cultural visit, undergarments in a skin tone and a slip or long skirt beneath answer the question entirely. In Dubarry, Violet, Hibiscus or Coral Orange the matter hardly arises. The PP linen blouse in Orchid is similarly assured; in Lemon, Pink or Sky Blue it asks for the same skin-tone layer beneath. All are in the women's linen collection.

A last observation. Linen grows softer with washing, and the yarns relax and bloom slightly, closing the spaces in the weave. A linen shirt after a dozen washes can be a little more opaque than it was when new. Well-made linen keeps its body for many years.

So: is linen see-through? Fine shirting linen in a mid or deep colour, no. In White and the palest tones, a little, in strong light from behind, in the same way as any natural cloth of its weight. It is a property to be understood and dressed for, and it comes with the lightness that is the reason for choosing linen in the first place.

A Guide to Linen Weight  ·  The Linen Shirt Colour Guide  ·  How to Identify Premium Linen