Twill Suits, Trousers, & Coats Fabric Guide: Best Twill Suits To Buy Online

At the end of this guide, you can discover the best twill suits that we’ve found online. Each are offered by our favourite online made-to-measure  suit retailers and are featured in no particular order of preference.

1. Black Lapel Blue Birdseye Custom Suit
2. Indochino Hereford Cavalry Twill Indigo Suit
3. Indochino Midnight Plaid Twill Suit
4. Black Lapel Rivington Dusk Blue Suit
5. Indochino Slate Grey Textured Twill Suit

You can use the menu above to jump ahead directly to the best suits or scroll down first and learn more about the fabric.

What Is Twill Fabric?

Black Lapel Fleck Twill

Twill is a type of weave characterized by parallel, diagonal ribs, that is used to make various fabrics. This contrasts with a plain weave, which has no such ribbing. The diagonal effect is achieved by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads, then under two or more warp threads, and so on. There is a “step” (also known as an “offset”) between rows that creates the characteristic diagonal pattern.

The diagonal pattern is also known as a “wale.” The term “wale” is often used when discussing corduroy’s ribs, which may be so fine that it resembles velvet. It may also be wide wale, in which case the individual ribs themselves are larger and the garment becomes more casual as a result.

Twill fabrics, unlike plain weaves, have a front and back side. These are referred to as the “technical face” and “technical back,” respectively. The technical face has the most pronounced wale.

Twill weaves are not limited to just one type of material. It can be used in cotton, wool, silk, or others.

There are many styles of twill weaves found in a wide array of garments: worsted wool, herringbone, flannel, tweed, gabardine, and houndstooth all come to mind. It’s highly likely that you own quite a few twill weave garments but simply weren’t aware of it.

Benefits Of Twill Fabrics

So, why is twill so popular and ubiquitous, and why should you wear it?

Drape

The structure of twill makes it drape wonderfully. We’ll dive into this a bit more below, but the lion’s share of men’s suits are made of worsted wool, especially from companies that sell suits off the rack. Worsted wool is a twill fabric. As one of the key factors that contributes to a suit’s handsomeness is its drape, it would stand to reason that twill fabrics would be used for them.

As there are fewer interlacings among threads in twill weaves than in plain ones, twill fabrics tend to be softer and more forgiving than plain weaves.

Stain Resistance

Soiling and stains are less noticeable on twill fabrics than on smooth surfaces, which is another reason for twill’s ubiquitousness. In addition to tailored clothing, twill fabrics are used in work clothes and denim because of this benefit.

Common Twill Garments

Twills are everywhere. Your closet is probably stocked full of it, but here are some of the most common menswear garments for which a twill weave is often utilized:

Denim

Though the $300 pairs of designer jeans available today would have you thinking otherwise, denim is a hard-wearing material and is therefore made from a twill weave more often than not. If you’re wearing a pair now, get up close and personal and take a hard look at the texture of your jeans. It’s more likely than not that you’ll see diagonal lines running throughout. That’s how you know it’s twill.

Shirts

Many cotton dress shirts are woven from twill fabric. Shirts are often grouped into two types of twill:

1. Royal Twill: A twill with a fine texture, royal twills are generally found in high-end RTW and custom shirts (note: the word “royal” as it relates to shirts indicates fineness, formality, and high quality). Shirts with high thread counts (measured in threads per square inch) are often royal twills.
2. Fine Twill: Even finer than Royal Twills are, well, Fine Twills. This twill is woven extremely tightly and makes for a very formal, dressy shirt.

Indochino Custom Twill Shirt

Suits

Black Lapel Birdseye Twill

As we mentioned above, most suits are made from worsted wool fabric, which is under the umbrella of twill. They drape and tailor well, and they feel soft against the skin. It’s no surprise that this weave is so popular for men’s suiting.

There are several styles of twill such as Fresco and Birdseye. While they may not appear like your classic twill on the surface, Black Lapel’s Fresco wool is a style of worsted twill fabric that’s ideal for summer wear.

Meanwhile, the unique weave of Birdseye puts it under the the same category.

Cavalry Twill

Cavalry twills aren’t relegated to any particular garment, but if you have ever heard the word “twill” before now, it was probably used with the word “cavalry.”

All it refers to is a thick, large-scale twill that’s noticeable even from somewhat of a distance. Imperial twills, another style of twill, are similarly large. You can discover a few examples of cavalry twill by Indochino in our selection of suits below.

How & When To Wear Twill

Most of us wear twill garments all the time without even noticing that we’re doing it.

Twill can be worn all year round in any part of the world, at any time of day or night. It’s extremely versatile in that way.

Jeans

Denim is one of the garments that most guys wear most often. So many offices have gone casual nowadays that it’s part of the business casual dress code. Consequently, our guide to business casual will help you flesh out your wardrobe in that regard if you need it.

Yet, even those of us who wear suits five days a week still need a couple of pairs of jeans to get us through evenings, weekends, and vacations.

Denim twill pairs wonderfully with anything really, it’s just a matter of cut and color. Slim, dark denim will coordinate well with tailored sport coats and shirts, while casual, lighter denim pairs well with a henley and casual shoes.

Suits

Yes, we’ve mentioned it a couple of times already, but it bears repeating: if you’re wearing a suit, you’re probably wearing twill weave fabrics. Consequently, you can see our top recommendations of related suits listed below.

Otherwise, for everything you need to know about suits, we invite you to take a look at our suits homepage.

Best Twill Suits To Buy Online

As mentioned above, we’ve sampled a selection of our favourite made-to-measure twill suits to buy online. They are listed in no particular order of preference but each provide an insight into the fabric’s characteristics.

1. Black Lapel Blue Birdseye Custom Suit
2. Indochino Hereford Cavalry Twill Indigo Suit
3. Indochino Midnight Plaid Twill Suit
4. Black Lapel Rivington Dusk Blue Suit
5. Indochino Slate Grey Textured Twill Suit

You can use the menu above to jump ahead or scroll down to discover them all.

Other Fabrics & Patterns

They say that cotton is the fabric of our lives, but you could make the same claim about twill weaves. Now that you know a bit about it, hopefully you’ll have fun spotting it next time you’re having a suit made up!

If you’d like to learn more about fabrics in general, our fabric guide is a great resource. Further, our guide to patterns will help you identify any pattern used in menswear and assist you in determining which ones you prefer.

What Next?

Now that you have read our guide to twill suit fabrics, consider perusing some of our related content:

• Herringbone Suit Fabric Guide
• Corduroy Suit Fabric Guide
• Best Made-to-Measure Suit Brands
• Different Suit Making Type Guides
• Bespoke Unit Suits Homepage