Thanks, Tim - hope you're staying cool out there in sunny California. I love this question because I love seersucker, and the short answer is YES.
As much as I dig the quiet cool of a tone-on-tone (we make them in navy and spruce green)... the classic blue & bone stripe is the only version that I own. I wear the heck out of it. And I don't even have the pants!! While it IS perfect for a garden party, that is hardly its boundary. I look at my seersucker blazer as the summer version of my navy blazer. (This guy is an open field runner - think Deion Sanders: runs free but under control). It has a LOT of range – it's great with jeans, khakis, canvas, linen, wool – and looks just as good with a shirt and tie as it does with a polo. So in a way you can make it casual and almost beatnik, or dressy and elegant - from Miles Davis at the '58 Newport Jazz Festival to Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen in The Godfather, Part II.
My one rule of thumb is that I don't usually wear patterns with it (except with neckwear), so I would just go ahead and eliminate any patterned shirts. And then I would lean into oxfords (the fabric gives it some ease) in almost ANY color: white, light blue, pink, yellow... all great. Polos are awesome with it, so is a chambray. If you just go with solids you can't really make a mistake. ("One lead singer" rule still applies – no color explosion.) And if you've already got the matching pants – same strategy. Solids up top, and sandals or mocs are just as great as tassel loafers or oxfords.
And the fabric! I mean it was literally invented for the heat in India in the 1600s. It's kind of corrugated, so it never goes totally flat to your skin, which helps with airflow. Like built-in AC! And our jacket is half-lined, which makes it super light and adds to its cool practicality. The fact it's always wrinkled and never wrinkled at the same time makes it perfect for the man on the go. I know it is a Southern stereotype these days, but when I lived in NYC... I saw just as much seersucker up there, if not more, then in the south. And I looooove it as a city suit – no tie, sockless, with loafers. Super cool.
(One last thing to know about the stripe, too, is that it dinges up with time. The colors will chill out the more you wear it and knock around in it. "Dirtier," but in a good way. A patina.)
So yeah... goes with basically any solid, never have to worry about wrinkles, is super-light in the heat... I'd just say don't overthink it and I think you'll be blown away by how much you reach for this as a jacket.
