Don’t sweat it!
HOW TO DRESS FOR WORK ON HOTTEST DAYS
The problem comes up every summer: How to dress for work in the sweltering heat. It's tricky enough to be always on-point the rest of the year — but when it's 90 degrees out, humid and nearly everything you put on gets soaked in sweat? Please. All most of us want to do under those circumstances is to throw on a bathing suit and jump in a pool. And sure, most offices have air conditioning, but not everyone works at a desk. And even if you do, you still have to get there and back. This year, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. (And ironically, most of them actually involve being sleeveless.) When the temps rise and I want to dress with style, stay cool, and not set off alarm bells with the HR department, these are a few of my secret weapons:
Stick to light colors and neutrals. These keep your outfit on the serious side, while also not attracting heat. If you just can't live without color in such a fun season, focus the brights on your accessories, so you don't look like you just came to work from a resort.
Embrace longer skirts with wellplaced slits. If you work in an environment where shorter hemlines are taboo, this is a genius solution. Kneelength-or-lower
skirts with a modest opening can keep you as cool as shorter versions, without sacrificing modesty. Go for light jersey
fabrics. Whatever anyone wants to say about how sophisticated linen is, and how beautiful silk is, they can be a disaster as soon as you start to sweat. And who wants to show up for your first meeting rumpled and wrinkled, and stay that way all day? Jersey doesn't wrinkle easily, and almost always dries smoothly.
Keep a cardigan handy. While you definitely don't want to wear one during the commute or out at lunch, keeping a goes-with-everything solid color onhand (either at your desk or in your bag) frees you up to go sleeveless when you head outside. If possible, keep several. That way you can rotate them according to your outfits. Think about dresses differently. The dress is incredibly popular in the summer. But though minidresses (for obvious reasons) and maxi dresses (they're either too beach-y or too formal for many office cultures) aren't the best bet, loads of other designs bridge the gap between “comfortable” and appropriate.” One of my favorites is the lightweight cotton shirtdress — in a sassy pinstripe and topped with a belt, it keeps things both professional and stylish.