Ah, the Dog Days of summer started very early this year, but they’re here now with a vengeance. The city needs daily intervals of icy downpours, or cold rain showers, while The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” blasts away in the background. Well, if we can’t have that, let’s think of something cooling. The ancient Egyptians understood the usefulness of unbleached, durable linen. They wore fine linen garments to counteract the heat and humidity of the Nile Delta. Their production of linen is a remarkable story in itself, going back about three thousand years or so.

People in tropical countries also learned the value of wearing white, lightweight textiles. Our own modern era tropical wear is a variation on combinations of linen and khaki fabrics. The Filipinos devised costumes that merged elegance and utility. The nineteenth century gentleman in the illustration above is wearing a white shirt that is actually intended for formal wear—yet note how this shirt woven from pineapple fiber appears the height of casual dress to our untutored modern-day eyes. The shirt’s whiteness also proclaims the wearer’s affluence, for it would have to be laundered frequently.