How To Stay Professional In The Heat
Temperatures may rise, but business dress codes stay the same. Even if your weather app spells out “shorts and flip-flops,” you’ve still got to look professional in the workplace. Here are a few practical ways to ensure you’ll make it from your front door to that first meeting looking and feeling fresh.
Look for lightweight, breathable fabrics
Unless your office has a more casual policy for the summer months, you’ll still be wearing a suit. But that it doesn’t have to be the same suit you wore from September to May. You can look just as polished but feel much cooler by wearing a suit made from fresco, a type of worsted wool featuring a more open weave that increases air flow and breathability.
If your office is a bit more casual, you could also opt for a cotton or linen suit. Each fabric generally has a lighter weight and offers more breathability, and linen stands out for being quick-drying—a factor you’ll appreciate if you tend to sweat.
Consider a half-lined jacket
Another way to cool off your suit is to opt for half-lining instead of full lining. Half-lined suits will typically include lining behind the shoulders and on the sides, but leave the back unlined to allow for greater airflow and ventilation.
Embrace desk deodorant
Despite these precautions, there’s still a chance you may end up just a bit more sweaty than you’d prefer before that big afternoon meeting. Unless you happen to have a shower in your office, the next best fix is to simply grab a stick of deodorant from your desk and re-apply it in the restroom. Just make sure your back-up deodorant is aluminum-free.
Have a back-up shirt
Consider this your break-glass-in-case-of-emergency-option. Maybe it was the hottest day of the year. Perhaps you got stuck in a subway car without AC. Or you had to walk 15 flights of stairs after learning the office elevator was down. Whatever happened, your shirt is soaked. This could almost be reason to sneak back home to change—unless you’ve stashed away a fresh, ironed shirt at your office for precisely this scenario. You’ll be glad you did.
