The sixth entry on Dash DeWitt's Blog, kept by Dash DeWitt and featured on the Bluebell website. This entry was posted in response to In Havoc & In Heat.
A Dash of Style
There is hot and then there is BlueBell heat wave hot, the type of heat typically reserved for baking bread, forging steel and greeting Wall Street bankers in the afterlife. In times like these, for a man of sturdy stock such as myself, fashion becomes less about style and more about simple survival. That said, fear of sweat is not a free pass to approach one’s wardrobe with willy nilly abandon. Even Hell itself is no excuse for wife beaters, cutoffs and men’s capris. When the heat is on, here are my top five men’s hot weather fashion do’s:
1. White Shoes – I know, I know. No white after Labor Day but when it’s this hot, I make an exception. Be it lace-ups or slip-ons, white keeps your look clean and prevents your toes from sizzling like five Vienna sausages in a can.
2. Unlined Cotton Sports Jackets – Just formal enough for Fancie’s but lightweight and airy so you don’t feel like a polar bear wearing an Eskimo coat in Tahiti.
3. Panama Straw Hats – When everyone else settles for a baseball cap or, shudder, a trucker hat, the true gentlemen remain distinguished in the shade with the Panama straw hat. It’s a classic for a reason, plebes.
4. Cotton Twill Chinos – So roomy and light, I view these more as full-length shorts than pants (and definitely not short on fashion). It’s the sophisticated choice.
5. Deodorant, and lots of it – Because sometimes the best fashion choice is simply a shirt that doesn’t smell.