This post is based on the video – Dressing Sharp In The Heat
Gentlemen, Antonio here. Today, let’s talk about hot weather dressing specifically I’m going to give you three tips on how to start building your hot weather interchangeable wardrobe. I’m also going to lay out fifteen items and how you can use those fifteen items to get sixty outfits. Why?
Let’s say you’re traveling you’re going out to Houston, Texas you’re going to Las Vegas maybe you’re going out to Singapore.
I any case you’re traveling some place really hot and you need to be able to pack a suitcase to be able to, you know, live out that suitcase for a week, two weeks and look sharp.
Guys, all the clothing I’m going to show you right here brought to you by Ministry of Supply. I’m going to link to them right over here. But, gentlemen, I’ve been using their clothing for two years. A great company and I’ll tell you why.
Specifically, their fabrics are bar none some of the best. I’m wearing one of their shirts right now. It looks and feels great. Also, great customer service, very innovative as well. So, I’ll get into – I’ll get more into the clothing at the end of this video if you want to stick around for a great review on why I just love this company, but let’s get into the tips.
#1 Wear Clothing For Hot Weather
So, tip number one. Wear clothing actually designed to be worn in hot weather. It seems simple it seems obvious, but, so many of us just grab a shirt. We’re like, okay, you know, this shirt looks nice, feels good, I’m going to pack it. Well, the problem with this shirt versus this shirt right here, that blue shirt was made from a very lightweight material, breathable lightweight.
This one is made from a twill fabric, a very tight weave and even though it’s white even though it’s light-colored even though it looks like you could wear it in a hot weather, this one is going to have you sweating more than lightweight clothing. The key point, gentlemen, is not all fabrics not all clothing is created equal and you need to pay attention to key factors.
Now, factor number one is going to be actually the fabric. Now, many of us have heard that linen is great, but linen wrinkles a lot may not be practical for many of you, but it is a great fabric.
And another one is cotton, but make sure that the cotton weave and I’ll get into weaves here in a second is correct. Now, cotton overall can work great, but it will, again, wrinkle much like linen. Now, you can also look at tropical weight wools. They’re going to be a lot pricier, but tropical weight wools are some of the best options out there.
Now, where I’m really getting excited is in performance fabrics. Nowadays, you can go out there and you can find clothing that is specifically made to wick away moisture of a very lightweight very durable fabric can be easily washed just thrown, you know, with the rest of the laundry, you don’t have to take, you know, to send it off to the dry cleaners. Things like that make shirts that are specifically designed for performance. One of my favorite travel options especially to hot weather.
Now, I mentioned weave. The key here is to make sure it’s breathable and hopefully it’s going to wick away moisture from the body. The great thing about a lot of these performance fabrics is that they specifically state that they do that.
When it comes to a lot more natural fabrics you’re going to have to actually look. Linen does usually a pretty good job and it’s often woven in a way that’s going to be breathable. But, cottons you got to be careful, sometimes you’re going to see that twill weave and that’s not going to be very breathable.
Other times you’re going to see a gauze weave or you’re going to see something like in seersucker which is a three dimensional weave and actually does an amazing job of allowing air to pass and it almost feels like you’re not wearing anything. In any case, pay attention to that weave.
Structure and build. Remember, you want to keep it lightweight you want to keep it unstructured, so let start off with jackets. I hear it all the time, “Antonio, no way in hot weather am I going to wear a jacket.” And I get it because a lot of guys have worn jackets that were not made to be worn in hot weather and they were sweating and they had a bad experience. Find a jacket that’s unstructured, doesn’t have the typical three layers that many of them are not even breathable. Instead find one that has one layer is very lightweight is very breathable, all of a sudden you’re going to look great.
This jacket right here, I had it made when I was going down to Austin, Texas. This is when I owned my custom clothier. I specifically designed it to be unstructured, unlined, and on the ins – I mean it’s beautiful on the inside. But, one key about it is it’s actually a very breathable fabric, very, you know – and I know not everyone can get something custom build, so go out there and find a company like the Ministry of Supply that’s actually making jackets specifically for hot weather that are unlined, unstructured, have one layer that’s very breathable.
#2 Nail The Fit
#2 Nail The FitTip number two. Nail the fit. Guys, get the fit right because if you’ve got a hotspot if you – too tight in the armpit maybe too tight in the hips you’re going to end up sweating in that area. It’s not going to feel comfortable when you sit down when you stand up, it’s going to all of a sudden start to stick and hot weather exaggerates hotspots whenever wearing them.
In addition, make sure your trousers are properly hemmed. So, when you’re – and I think in hot weather you can wear your trousers a tad shorter. What this does is on chinos and other types of trousers, it allows air to vent in there and it feels a lot more comfortable than if they’re too long.
The key point is when you nail the fit you feel more comfortable in your clothing, when you feel more comfortable in your clothing, you’re actually less likely to sweat.
#3 Own The Hot Weather Accessories
Tip number three. Own the right hot weather accessories. So, they’re the usual suspects, we’re talking about hats which I think are a great hot weather accessory. Can add a lot of style to an outfit and are very functional especially if you’re going to be in a place where you’ve got a harsh sun on you.
Sunglasses, another great hot weather accessory that you can bring in. You can bring in a few different types of sunglasses and they can really change the outfit especially if you want to get a little bit fashion forward with the lenses or with the styles that you’re going to be bringing in.
But also look for no-show socks. So, this is something I think a lot of guys skip over, but you want to find a no-show sock that’s breathable and, you know, and you want to use those because otherwise your shoes are going to start to smell and you want them to work with, you know, shoes that go a little bit plunge a little bit deeper like this, so it looks like you’re not wearing socks, but you actually are.
Now, there are a couple of things that aren’t typically considered accessories, but you want to make sure that your underwear that your undershirts, all of these are made from a micromodal material, are made from something that’s very lightweight very breathable because I can tell you if your core clothing your underwear is not actually breathable if it’s not feeling good, then it doesn’t matter what you’re putting on the outside you’re still going to start to sweat there.
All right, guys, that’s it for the three tips. I want you to go check out the support article, I go into a lot more there. I’ve got four additional tips and I go into more detail in everything I covered. Now, let’s more into the second part of this video where I’m going to talk about fifteen items that can go in your hot weather interchangeable wardrobe and how they’re going to work.
You notice how I’ve got five shirts; two polos, three shirts. I also have two jackets, I have three pairs of trousers, I have two shoes. Now, I also have a hat, belt, and a tie. If you take all of these and you assume it’s all one hundred percent interchangeable, you have a total of sixty outfits from fifteen items. I’m going to talk about each of the items and why I chose them. And the reason I’m giving you this information is so you can go out there and adjust this to best suit your needs.
So, you’ll notice I have a white button-up shirt, a dress shirt. I think that this is one of the most interchangeable items in a man’s wardrobe, you can dress it up, you can dress it down. Always need to have a white shirt. The light blue shirt, it can be dressed up, it can be dressed down, it’s going to be a little bit less formal than a white, but, again, very interchangeable. You’ll notice I have a navy in there as well. For me, this is great for evening wear. I can also wear it during the day by itself and it looks great, it has a slimming effect and I personally love this color.
Now, I didn’t have the shirt in there, but I know many of you guys would rather have something that’s a bit more casual. You would want to look at something that has maybe a small pattern in it and it’s not going to be as versatile as the others as it’s going to be more memorable, however it is a great shirt that is going to have many of the same properties, but is definitely going to be more casual.
Now, the most casual shirts I have in that chart are the polos. Personally, I like polos I feel they suit my body type, they work for me. I like that they have a collar. They have a sport heritage and with actually without the sleeves when they’re cut like that, they actually are less formal and they don’t have the full button-down. However, I find that I can still wear a polo with a sports jacket and look great.
The three trouser colors I chose were khaki, light gray, and white. Now, I know white isn’t going to be for everybody, so you can substitute that with a blue. The key with your trouser is you want to keep them simple, you want them to work with all of your shirts. That’s key to have that interchangeable wardrobe.
And you can also substitute some of these for shorts. I know some of you guys are big into shorts and that’s what you want to wear, well, go out there and find a pair that looks great. Try to avoid the cargo shorts unless you really use the cargo pockets, but I find for most men they’re going to look better which is a plain pair of shorts.
Now, in this fifteen-item wardrobe, I had two jackets. I started with a light gray. I think that light gray is very interchangeable and it works with the light gray trousers to formal suit, so if I have to go to something formal, I actually I do have a suit that I can wear. Now, I also brought in a navy jacket. I think it’s going to work with all the trousers that I showed there. It’s going to work with all of the shirts, very interchangeable. If I were to bring in a navy pair of trousers instead of the whites all of a sudden I have two suits and I have a suit that is going to be more formal than the light gray.
When it comes to shoes, tons of options. Find the ones that are going to suit your needs. So, if it’s going to be a business event, you want to wear something it’s going to be a little bit more formal, you know something like this. If it’s going to be a casual event, have fun, maybe go with a pair of gray suedes, maybe go with a pair of driving shoes, maybe find a pair of moccasins, but make sure that the shoes are – you’ve got something if you’re going to take a suit that will at least work with your suit.
With the hat, belt, and tie, the key here is make sure your belt matches your shoes, go with the tie which is going to be simple conservative interchangeable with everything that you have. And with the hat, if you’re going to take it make sure to wear it, if you’re not going to wear a hat, then go with something else. Go with a great pair of sunglasses maybe take an extra pair of shoes.
All right, guys, so let’s move to the final part of this video. I want to talk about Ministry of Supply. I’m going to link to them right over here, but, gentlemen, I’ve been using this company for two years. I love their clothing. I’ve had their trousers, I’ve had their shirts. This shirt in particular is my favorite travel shirt and I’ll tell you why, because it actually has these armpit holes that actually do vent and cool me down is made from a stretch material and they actually does a pretty good job of resisting stains.
I got some of their jackets and I’ve been looking at these the inside and the stitching, very well done. But, what I love is, and I talked about innovation with this company, so when it comes to, you know, I don’t know about you, guys, but on my suit jackets the buttons oftentimes are coming off after a period of a few months.
And I re-sew them on, yeah, and do a better job than what the companies do, but I love is these guys have a sliding button system. I’ve never seen they have this not only on their jackets, but they’ve got this on their trousers and it better distributes actually some of the pressure and this is never going to break off.
Also, in their jackets, so, you know, have you ever lost anything out of your pockets? A lot of guys don’t even use the pockets here. They assume that the guy that’s going to be using their type of clothing actually is going to care about that and the put zippers on here. People are, you know, loving their trousers and they actually do match with the suits or the jackets so you can form a full suit. I mean they really paid attention to the whole innovation of the clothing.
Their trousers are made in a way that they’ve got a bit of a stretch. I was just talking with Aaron Marino, he’s agreed these are some of the best fitting and most comfortable trousers I own simply because, again, they got a little bit of that stretch material, even the buttoning system is made to distribute weight in the front.
All right, guys, I don’t know what else I can say about Ministry of Supply. Great company. I fully endorse them. And, let me know what you think. I’ll see you in the next video.
This post is based on the video – Dressing Sharp In The Heat
