Most linen shirts disappoint you the first time you wash them. They go limp, they wrinkle in the wrong way rather than the good way, and the collar loses whatever shape it had. The fabric that looked so promising in the product photo turns out to be thin enough to see through in sunlight. We’ve been through enough of them to know that linen quality varies more than almost any other shirt fabric, which is why touching it before buying matters so much and why buying online requires someone doing that work for you.

The shirts we’ve picked here are made from linen with real weight and structure. They wrinkle, because that is what linen does and fighting it is a fool’s errand, but they wrinkle well. The collars hold. The fabric softens with wear rather than deteriorating. We’ve focused on cuts that work half tucked with shorts and properly worn with trousers. Summer dressing sorted, without the usual disappointment.