Beat the Heat in Style! Summer & Hot Weather Outfits for Men

After 30+ years of living/fine dressing in NYC I always followed 3 rules to beat the summer heat: 1) Always cross to the shady side of the street, 2) Move as calmly, smoothly and slowly as the situation will allow and 3) Try not to get overexcited about anything. Cool and calm wins the day when beating the heat.

You should have also mention a Guayabera shirt. In tropical areas such as South Floria,Mexico, Caribbean and Latin America a white long sleeve Guayabera shirt is considered classics dress.

Thank you from Mexico, with our climate sometimes is very complicate to wear classic styles, and as a lawyer this is like a heaven´s gift

Living in Phoenix Arizona where our average daily summer temp is over 110*F with 0% humidity, Linen and open weave cotton is king. Keeping the sun off is hugely helpful as well so long sleeves can really help reduce not only the heat but the risk of skin cancer. That being said I wear suits through out summer but follow the above points and avoid being outdoors as much as possible. There is a degree of just accepting that it is going to be hot and just wearing what you want anyway.

I live in a tropical country, the Philippines, yet I also am sartorially inclined! This video is a testament for gentlemen that you can still look elegant anywhere even in the scorching heat!

Hi! I am from the Caribbean. Due to the fact that we have warm humid weather all year round, we developed the use of the guayabera. For us here, the guayabera is a formal garment used in baptisms, weddings, as well as in any other formal occasion. But you can also use it as a casual garment. You can use guayabera in short sleeves as well as with long sleeves. They are always prepared in lightweight breathable materials, and in light colors. I feel so comfortable with its good looks, that as a lawyer I use guayaberas for my everyday in office (non court) matters. Feel free to look up for guayaberas and its great advantages for hot humid climates. Thanks for the great job, keep it up! Saludos!

I wear suits/blazers a lot in the summer as a Realtor. Two tips I love for summer: 1. Wear short sleeve button downs or polos under a suit jacket/blazer. 2. Change up a suit by pairing a blazer with cotton chinos. Great video!

I'm living in Kazakhstan and you'll never know what weather will be even in summer. For example yesterday i had to wear tweed jacket with tweed trousers, v neck sweater and even an overcoat with backer boy cap but today it was very hot and i just wore simple two piece suit. Well you can guess how much i "love" my climate)

All this is great but when autumn arrives then I get really excited ... the best time for wearing best clothes. Could never live without 4 seasons.

I’ve been on a big linen kick recently because of hot weather here in the south. Im excited that this video is helping me diversify

Came for the Schlueter Style. Stayed for the Preston Puns. I'm from southeast Texas where our only two seasons are summer and Christmas and "evaporative cooling" is just a myth. The heat and humidity have always been a major roadblock for upping my style, so thank you for the advice on staying cool while looking cool!

The second suit I ever got was bought for me by my grandma. She told me to go get something I wanted. It was a khaki/stone cotton suit. I know it’s not dress code, but I wore it to her funeral because it reminded me of her. Then again, I was the only one on a 100+ degree day wearing a suit that was meant for the summer.

Living down in Dixie myself, cotton and linen all summer long! I don’t go a week with out wearing some seersucker!

I live in Atlanta. Braces, suspenders allow for better air circulation than a belt.

Excellent advice. I’ve always worn long pants (light colored,light weight chinos) in the summer, but I could never explain why I wasn’t hot. Now I can. Also, I wasn’t aware that the chemicals used to make no iron cotton shirts wear so unbreathable. Fortunately I own shirts that need to be ironed (in general I don’t like chemicals added to my clothes).

In Jacksonville Florida, when it starts to hit the 90s, I switch to short sleeve collared linen shirts, casual linen slacks, loafers, no-see socks, and one of my straw fedoras (like my Venetian made Churchill). My problem is finding good well made 100% linen pants. Also one of the suits which I recently ordered is a wool/linen blend in an Italian style specifically for this climate.

One quibble here - while cotton is the more common summer fabric these days, linen is far superior when it comes to wicking and then releasing moisture, no matter what the climate. As you point out in the "sweaty underarms" section on undershirts, cotton is great at absorbing moisture...but not always so great at letting go of it. In fact, it tends to act more like a sponge than a wick. Hence wet sweaty underarms, damp smelly socks, the ever-dreaded swamp crotch, etc. And it's also why if you do outdoor activities, you'll frequently hear the maxim that "cotton kills" - since it holds onto water so tenaciously, if you get it wet while hiking or camping it will tend to stay that way, significantly increasing your risk of hyperthermia, creating potentially medically serious levels of chafing and blisters, encouraging fungal and bacterial growth, and adding significant weight to your overall load. So cotton is only really a good moisture-wicking fabric in drier climates or air-conditioned spaces where the heat, humidity, and/or air flow are consistently at the right balance to offset cotton's sponge-like tendencies (although it can be fine as an outer layer, such a light jacket or sweater). Additionally, unless you take care to only buy (very expensive) certified sustainably grown cotton from a reputable and independently verified brand, cotton represents one of the worst water-guzzling and pesticide/herbicide-heavy environmental offenders in the agricultural world. Linen, otoh, is a far more environmentally sustainable crop, and the fiber wicks (i.e. MOVES) moisture incredibly well without holding onto it like cotton does. So it dries out far more quickly even in humid and damp conditions. This creates a more enhanced cooling sensation vs cotton and makes linen naturally anti-microbial, since it doesn't stay wet. This also means linen won't get smelly like cotton does and it will also perform far better under wool, which also tends to hold onto water, making it a poor choice over potentially wet/sweat-soaked cotton under-layers. And, as Preston noted, it's a far stronger and more durable fiber than cotton, to boot. This is why our forefathers (and mothers) preferred linen shirts and shifts under wool, even when cotton was available - you get all the advanced sweat-wicking/cooling qualities of linen against the skin plus linen's enhanced durability (enabling it to stand up to frequent wear and washing), combined with the temperature-regulating and wear-resistant qualities of wool facing the environment. So if you're one of those folks who've previously resigned themselves to being sweaty and damp all summer (or all the time), consider switching to all-linen under-layer system. You might be pleasantly surprised at the improvement. (Bamboo is also similarly cooling, but is also quite a weak fiber. So it's more suitable for low-wear/low-stress garments. It does however have a lovely soft feel and drape, as well as providing additional cooling, and brings these traits to the party when blended with other fibers. However, like cotton, bamboo comes with significant environmental costs. While the plant itself is fairly sustainable, bamboo fabric is essentially just another form of synthetic rayon, and requires extensive processing involving a significant amount of electricity, water and toxic chemicals to turn the raw plant matter into a usable fiber. However, some manufacturers are shifting to more 'closed loop' and energy-efficient processes in an attempt to reduce those environmental impacts, so it might be worth looking for that if you are a fan of the fabric.)

Your example of the classic men’s wear worn by the Bedouin’s for the heat was spot on. The wearing of a thoab, serwal, keffiyeh or shemagh sure helps to keep a person cool. Even “Laurence of Arabia” demonstrated this. Like who wants to wear a tie and a jacket in the heat? But this clothing is not popular in Western cultures. Anyway, your examples of the light cloths were great. Personally, I don’t layer at all when it is hot. When the temps are stable around 100 degrees all Summer, clothing is minimal. Even for evening outings.

Thank you, I’m in Florida. It was 92 today with 60% humidity. Breathable fabrics are king.

I will put most of this knowledge to the test when I travel to the Caribbean next month. Temperatures are in the 90s and humidity is at or near 100%. Packing plenty of cotton and linen.