For sartorial traditionalists, the first weekend in May, when the Kentucky Derby takes place, ushers in the start of seersucker weather.

Seersucker, a striped cotton fabric with a slightly wrinkled surface, connotes Southern gentlemen in a full suit with white bucks, but with men's fashion enjoying a preppy moment, young men can find fresh ways to wear seersucker without looking like their grandfathers.

Sometimes it's as simple as breaking up the suit, says Jeffrey Ammeen, design director at the century-old menswear company Haspel. Mr. Ammeen, a former professional musician who still plays lead guitar in a band, considers himself a non-traditionalist. He owns four seersucker suits and prefers his "tea-stained" versions, in which the white stripes are more off-white; softening the white stripes gives the fabric a more vintage feel.

For daytime, Mr. Ammeen likes to wear a blazer in a tea-stained, blue-striped seersucker, which he pairs with jeans and a T-shirt or button-down shirt and moccasins or even black sneakers. "I'll keep the shirt generally solid, or I'll do a micro-pattern because the jacket is really taking center stage," he says. "Because of the stripes and the feeling of the jacket, that's really what's going to grab your eyes."

For evening events, he'll reach for his tea-dye gray suit, he says, calling gray and white "kissing cousins to black." When Mr. Ammeen wears a full seersucker suit, it's usually the gray version. He doesn't usually wear a tie, unless the occasion calls for it; in that case, he favors a solid tie or one with a micro-pattern.

Mr. Ammeen doesn't shy away from vibrant colors, adding that he's worn nearly every color, from red to yellow to orange, under his blazers.

When wearing seersucker shorts, he can "get away with" nearly any T-shirt or golf shirt. "I'm a fan of color," he says. "I have bright orange shirts. If I [feel] like wearing that shirt, I'm going to work around that."

Although some may wear seersucker with an eye on the calendar, Mr. Ammeen says that his choices are more climate-driven. He's already worn his tea-dye blue blazer this season when summer-like highs appeared early this spring.

He's more conscious of the start of fall and will start to move on from seersucker around mid-September.