5 Summer Office Fits for Every Workday Scenario
Summers in the office get a bad rap: no one wants to be stuck inside a clammy meeting room, tweaking the umpteenth version of a marketing deck while everyone else is busy posting vacation shots to Instagram.
But even if you’re stuck in the city, working through the summer can have its perks. Brighter days mean more walks to work, longer, lighter lunches, and ideally, clocking off early to sneak in a couple of beers with the team.
Done right, your office wardrobe can be another one of summer’s upsides. Hot days are the great equaliser: forget complicated layering, tricky fabrics, or trying to make a fit work with that ill-advised buy from a sample sale. Instead, usher in a welcome return to simplicity. The season boils down to a few key materials—cotton, linen, lightweight wool—in their simplest, breeziest iterations.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of five unimpeachable fits to take you through every workplace eventuality. Of course, mileage may vary: if you work in an attorney’s office, you’re probably stuck in a suit all summer (in which case look for looser fits, avoid poly blends at all costs, and know that our prayers are with you). But for the rest of us, consider the looks below the building blocks of your winning workday formula. No sweat.
Five Summer Office Staples
In This Guide
The Client Lunch
Schmoozing the clients means two things for your fit: looking smart enough to impress, while looking relaxed enough to avoid making them feel like schlubs. So yes, you should wear a jacket. Look for one in a breathable blend: linen or wool mixes, with minimal synthetics (although viscose and tencel are both well suited to hot weather). But dress it down with jeans or lightweight chinos, and toss in a t-shirt or shirt depending on the fanciness of the venue. And don’t forget to tip well.
