With summer now well and truly here, you should make sure that you dress well for the season. A key part of that is getting your layering right. What is layering? Business Insider provides a to-the-point definition: “You form an outfit with multiple layers. All of the pieces should work together and separately.” However, the process isn’t as simple as those two sentences have probably made it seem. Here are some clever techniques for approaching layering the right way for summer.
What difference should summer make to your attire?
There’s a pretty simple equation that often applies with clothing and, particularly, layering it. Business Insider puts it succinctly: “When it’s cold, you put on more layers; when it’s hot, you take them off.” So, how practical is layering during the summer, anyway? Jamie Millar, a former online style and grooming editor at GQ, concedes in an article for FashionBeans that the concept can initially appear oxymoronic. However, closer scrutiny reveals it to make abundant sense.
Millar points out that “unless you’re holidaying on a nudist beach for the duration of the season, you’ll still need to put some clothes on.” Furthermore, the relatively light materials of which summer clothing can consist have implications for how you layer, as that clothing differs in properties compared to winter clothes. Still, some rules of winter layering stay for the summer practice, too.
For instance, layers should be thicker the further they are from the body. You might have received advice in favour of lengthier hems for outer garments; however, we would advise you to disregard this tip. Reverse layering has become trendier recently, thanks to the likes of Kanye West – and, besides, most summer jackets are too short to make the more traditional method entirely practical.
When the sky is light, go dark
You might be tempted to cover yourself in white for summer; after all, pale hues, such as cream shades, have always been right for summer, surely? Alas, it’s not a belief that always seems borne out as an effective style method. Lightening your head-to-toe attire can come across as bizarre if your local climate does not have a reputation for being consistently sunny. You could even look reminiscent of the Man from Del Monte…
So, what other looks should you instead “always say yes” to – at least when it’s summer? Go for various dark shades like dark brown, chocolate brown, charcoal grey, and – of course – black. All of those colours are on Dickies shorts available to buy from that online clothing retailer – and they will help you avoid the Colonel Sanders undertones while still appearing “finger lickin’ good”.
Wrap a scarf around your neck
While you might consider scarves only winter mainstays, summer weather isn’t always so predictable that they should be entirely disregarded during it. Casually stuff a scarf into your bag before you leave the house; you could be out until an unexpectedly chilly evening. Layering is all about both style and practicality – don’t overly compromise either.
