I’ve been surprised at how popular these cotton crewnecks have been among our friends: they rival the black/white Donegal for the PS piece I’ve seen worn most often. 

Perhaps it’s because a few of them run hot, and it’s a good way to wear a chunky knit without overheating. But I’m sure a related factor is that there aren’t that many of these around – unlike cashmere or lambswool, well-made cotton crewnecks aren’t a staple of many brands’ collections. 

Anyway, they’re back, the hand-framed knits we sell in collaboration with Speciale. (As a reminder, they also sell one but it’s rather shorter, made more for high-waisted trousers. We’ve also tweaked things like the sleeve length.)

The navy and cream from last year are in stock, and we’ve added two new colours: black and latte. The second name is an attempt to describe the pale brown colour below, and I think it’s fairly accurate – think of coffee with milk. Maybe actual ‘café au lait’ would be better, but that’s a bit of a mouthful. 

That colour, I find, is really nice with other neutrals like black and cream, but also dark grey and brown. In the image above I wore it with a white shirt, pale biscuit-coloured trousers and dark brown accessories: belt, sunglasses, shoes. 

But it’s equally nice with black, and in fact it’s a pretty similar colour to my Pirozzi slubby-silk jacket, which we covered recently in the guide to silk tailoring. In that shoot I wore the jacket with black cords, which shows how well the two go together. 

So far, so cold colour. But dark grey and dark navy work well with the latte too, and even mid-grey with the intervention of something like a dark belt in between. 

As with quite a few outfits I wore on this recent trip to India (the shots were taken in Chennai) I found a snuff-coloured accessory like a watch, belt or bag was a nice way to add a bit of extra colour to these often neutral outfits. 

That was the case with the latte crewneck, but also with the black, which is perhaps a less obvious partner. 

In the outfits above and below I’m wearing the black with a pair of tan boat shoes, as well as vintage chino shorts and dark-brown tortoiseshell sunglasses. 

In the months I’ve been wearing the black, I’ve really liked it with this classic army beige colour, as it softens the impact of the black. But at the same time, I love it with beaten-up black jeans and a cordovan loafer too, for something a little more stylised.

The images higher up are a good read on the colour of the ‘latte’ knit by the way. We shot these as the sun was going down and while it does look gorgeous with the sun on it (above) the other pictures are more accurate. 

The other clothes shown are:

With the latte knit:

• White PS Ramie shirt (coming soon)
• Anderson & Sheppard brown webbing belt
• Trunk sunglasses
• Whitcomb & Shaftesbury bespoke trousers in W Bill linen (28306)
• Sagan loafers from Baudoin & Lange
• Jaeger-LeCoultre reverso watch, yellow gold on black alligator

With the black knit:

• Vintage seventies sunglasses
• Vintage military chino shorts
• Castellano boat shoes

These knits are coming out a little late, so I know there will be questions about the timing on other planned summer releases. Here’s a brief update is:

• Linen overshirts restocking next week 
• Finest Polos restocking next week 
• Shorts restocking towards the end of April
• Friday Polos restocking towards the end of April
• Ramie shirts (previewed at the pop-up) releasing in early May
• Denim shirts and chambray shirts a little delayed, should be May
• Tapered T-shirts no ETA! We are chasing though

Enjoy the cotton knits, and any questions on anything, please do ask below.

All photography: Jamie Ferguson