Why winter is the season of gentlemen

A cold, wet clime, frosty sidewalks and attitudes to match, winter is the harshest of the seasons, in more ways than one. The fun, loving atmosphere of summer is hastily put on ice come the start of September and cooled to Antarctic levels once November arrives. Snotty noses, oft-dripping hairlines and the musty smell of rain-soaked wool all symptoms of the equinox. A few months of Inuit-esque living successfully freeze personas and bones alike, replacing patience with anything but, yet winter belongs to the gentleman – despite the plethora of apparent drawbacks.

Whilst spring and particularly summer promote a laissez-faire attitude – the balmy evenings and boozy afternoons effectively lubricating proceedings – the more reserved approach to winter is favourable to the modern gent. The season accommodates some of his most crucial hallmarks, even if they’re mostly material.

The suit is the first spoke in the wheel. The tailored two-piece it has to be said, struggles during the sun. Yes, lightweight options are available but they come with a certain stigma and are rarely as well forged in sartorial excellence as their wool and mohair counterparts.

Image: Tommy Ton

Linen is a fantastic fabric, but on a suit it has a dowdy quality; dishevelled and not artfully so. Cotton also carries an inherent drabness, bland and not remotely as masculine as the heavier sartorial staples of winter. The jacket and trouser combo is, indisputably, the ultimate in gentlemanly attire and the sun is unfortunately not too kind to it. The summer suit is just one layer too many, sealing in the sweat and making for an uncomfortable experience, more so when everyone else has donned more laid-back wear.

Sticking to the wardrobe, outerwear has the innate ability to turn a good outfit into a great one, or cover a sartorial misstep, granting the appearance of good taste, or the illusion at least. A precipitator of style if you will.

Pulling on an overcoat broadens the shoulders, brings your attire together and looks bloody fantastic on anyone, with the right fit of course. Unfortunately come the rise in mercury, they’re quickly dispensed with and left to hang in isolation in the far reaches of the wardrobe, leaving a catalogue of flaws woefully exposed. Let’s face it gents, we all look better in a great jacket, or imposing overcoat.

Image: Tommy Ton

Then we have the evening tipple. A gentleman’s alcoholic signature is often of the warming variety. Where summer has beer on tap, coloured cocktails and fruity ciders, winter boasts an appropriate arsenal of whiskies, sloe gins and dark ales; on top of that a cigar is never more at home than in a drawing room accompanied by a roaring fire and an excellent glass of single malt.

The summer has many redeemable qualities – the sun, the social and the scantily-clad among them – but the winter has to trump it in the eyes of the real gent. It brings to mind the most archetypal pursuits of the well-heeled, well-dressed and well-revered men of the past countless decades, the real gentleman who we all aspire to be. When everybody is rushing around forgetting basic etiquette in the scrum of Christmas shopping and elbowing everything and anything to get the last seat on the train, this is when the small acts of kindness and chivalry standout even more. And if the cold gets a little too much, there’s always the calling of a continental trip for a well-needed top-up of vitamin D.