Dressing for the office in summer is a challenge for every woman, in general, and during the muggy, hot days of August, in particular. Creating looks for work during the Dog Days is especially challenging when the dress code asks for business casual or even corporate style. A skirt suit or pantsuit made from summer wool is just too warm in muggy summer weather, and even in dry heat, during the commute and lunch break.
Linen or cotton suits are a wrinkle nightmare and hence not stylish. Inside, the AC creates a chilly environment, while outside, it is too humid for sweat to evaporate. This guide addresses how to dress on hot summer days and during dog days. Wearing your fabulous summer dresses always the same way and/or getting into a style rut is not only boring for you, but it might also give a wrong impression at work.
This post covers how to create looks that address the problems and enable you to come across as creative with great summer outfit inspirations. Read what the best looks and fabrics are for work during the Dog Days.
- Prologue
- Which Fabrics Are Best to Wear in the Heat of Summer at Work?
- Skip Ironing with Jerseys
- Sleek Dresses Are Instant Style Looks for Work during the Dog Days
- Have a Matching Jacket
- Invest in Classic Sunglasses for Work Lunch Meetings Outside
- Wear a Cotton Blouse or Shirt with a Skirt
- Looks for Work during the Dog Days: Meeting Outfit Suggestions
- Change Your Outfit with Work-Appropriate Timeless Accessories
- Brooches, Necklaces, Shoes
- Make Light, Breathable, Sleeveless Summer Dresses Office-Appropriate with Cover-Ups, Jewelry, and Shoes
- Add Sleeves with a Halftee for Looks for Work during the Dog Days
- What to Look for in Work-Appropriate Summer Dresses
- What Are the Best Outfits for the Summer Heat
- Shirt Dress
- Empire-Waist Dress
- Fit-and-Flare Dresses
- Full-Skirt Dress
- Outfit Inspirations for What to Wear during the Dog Days?
- Casual Posh Summer Outfit with Seersucker
- Military-Inspired Cotton Shirt Dress
- In the Contiguous US, Dog Days Are Sultry
- Why What to Wear during the Dog Days Is a Challenge
- Moisture Transfer Thru Clothes
- Reasons Why Sweat Cools or Does Not
- Explanation: Why Sweating for Increased Cooling Is Limited
- Reasons Why Sweat Can’t Evaporate on Dog Days
- Dog Days of Summer Mean Heat Stress
- Why Improving Thermal Comfort During the Dog Days Is Self-Care
- Wrapping Up the Best Looks for Work during the Dog Days
- References
Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post.
There exist several explanations for the term dog days. One relates to ancient belief that Sirius, the Dog Star, causes hot weather when it is close to the Sun. Another explanation relates the name to the dogs’ barking and howling in hot, humid weather.
Which Fabrics Are Best to Wear in the Heat of Summer at Work?
The heat and humidity of the Dog Days ask for lightweight, breathable fabrics. Good candidates are hemp, cotton, linen, bamboo viscose, Modal, bamboo, and their blends.
Looking professional at work requires wrinkle-free clothing. As I discussed in my book, cotton and linen fabrics wrinkle easily. While wool fabric is wrinkle-resistant, it is not sun-safe, and is not very suitable outside in the muggy conditions of the Dog Days. However, blends of cotton or linen with at least 5% wool are wrinkle-resistant too.
Single-jersey fabrics made from cotton, linen, bamboo viscose, Modal, bamboo, or hemp, when blended with Spandex and/or polyester, are wrinkle-resistant and still breathable. However, the degree of breathability may vary.
Sateen and satin weave feel coolest to the touch when the sateen/satin side is turned towards your skin.
Skip Ironing With Jerseys
I am not a big fan of ironing in summer. It’s already hot, right? Therefore, I have a lot of jersey knit-type dresses that won’t wrinkle during the commute or in the laundry. Wrinkle-free dresses are among my summer favorites for the office.
Tip: When your work dress code requires legwear, wear knee highs or stockings under your midi-dress to stay cool. Stockings have come a long way in recent years.
Sleek Dresses Are Instant Style Looks for the Dog Days
Now that we know which fabrics are best, let’s create some instant work outfits. A skirt suit or pantsuit seems just too hot on the commute to work during the Dog Days. A white cotton sheath with abstract floral print is great to stay cool and look professional in a meeting on a hot summer day. Inside, wear a light (leather) jacket when the office is chilly.
Tip: If sleeveless is allowed, a sheath is a go-to.
See the interesting hemline and neckline of the sheath dress in the collage above. A necklace would be too much. However, accessorizing with brooches works with an unusual neckline (see following collage).
Have a Matching Jacket
This advice sounds counter-productive. However, when the heat is on, the air conditioner is on. This means cold stress occurs when the AC maintenance is not performed correctly. Therefore, in a workplace with business casual dress code, a jacket can keep you in thermal comfort and avoid catching a cold.
Tip: Have a cardigan or denim jacket in a neutral color, which works with most of your summer clothes, in a drawer of your desk.
Note: Adding a cardigan or even a shirt as cover-up is easier with a dress than separates.
A blazer does the trick when dressing for the corporate world (see photo later in this post).
Tip: An up-do improves the comfort of your neck.
Invest in Classic Sunglasses for Work Lunch Meetings Outside
Because at this time of year, the Sun is up the entire work day, you should have a pair of sunglasses handy that matches the vibe of your work wardrobe. You may need them for the walk to a work lunch meeting or even during lunch when the group decides to sit outside. Squeezing your eyes never looks professional.
Tip: When you have to spend a notable time outside for work wear-sun safe work attire.
Wear a Cotton Blouse or Shirt with a Skirt
In the look on the left, the red pumps and white background, along with a multi-color printed bag with studs, add interest. While wearing all white in summer is an American tradition, European women consider all white outfits too much work to keep the white crisp and wrinkle-free. Therefore, a white blouse or button-down shirt is as far as they will go for an office summer look. However, they may wear a white leather skirt with a 3/4-sleeve solid color shirt.
Looks for Work during the Dog Days: Meeting Outfit Suggestions
Here are some visual inspirations for professional looks to wear at a work meeting in summer.
Corporate Style Looks for Work During the Dog Days
Muggy Summer Work Outfit Idea for Casual Work Environment with Casual Friday Culture
Change Your Outfit with Work Appropriate Timeless Accessories
A solution for the summer work dressing challenges is dresses. A dress, plus bag, and pumps are instant style.]
Get rid of the old-fashioned assumption that a dress can be worn only one way. Achieve different looks by using other accessories and shoes. A well-edited collection of accessories, such as belts, scarves, necklaces, watches, and shoes, is a prerequisite to varying the look of one dress in different outfits.
This means accessories are your secret weapons!
Brooches, Necklaces, Shoes
Tip: Wear a jumper with a cardigan or a shirt to feel comfortable in the chilly AC office, and to meet the dress code.
Make Light, Breathable, Sleeveless Summer Dresses Office-Appropriate with Cover-Ups, Jewelry, and Shoes
Look beyond wearing a dress only as a dress. When dressing for the Dog Days, consider wearing a dress as a skirt when it’s sleeveless.
Add Sleeves with a Halftee for Looks for Work During the Dog Days
When sleeves are a Must according to the HR-dress-code halftees upgrade no-sleeve summer dresses to work looks for the Dog Days.
What to Look for in Work-Appropriate Timeless Summer Dresses
The criteria for fabulous office-appropriate dresses are that they
- Fit your typical work dress code, for instance, business casual when you are in engineering,
- Provide coverage at the typical problem zones of women in midlife, like arms, love handles, wide hips, or sun-damaged cleavage.
- Have an ageless style, but modern vibe/twist (you don’t want to look conservative and Old Lady),
- Are suitable for lunch with colleagues or clients outside,
- Feel comfortable in an air-conditioned office,
- Are easy to style with other pieces to create several office outfits with the same dress,
- Feature neutral colors that work with the fashion colors of your accessories,
- Work in the winter-to-spring transition as well as the summer-to-fall transition with items from the cold season.
Summer Heat Work Outfit Inspirations
Shirt Dress
Empire-Waist Dress
Sleeveless Empire waist green print dress, two ways.
Fit-and-Flare Dresses
Paisley and polka dot prints are eternal classics. Go for an ageless fit-and-flare cut like in the summer work outfit ideas below.
Full-Skirt Dress
If you have to wear pantyhose, try black for an unexpected variation. See eShakti dress outfit idea below.
Looks for Work: What to Wear during the Dog Days?
The following photos offer outfit ideas to help you stay cool or feel more comfortable on a muggy day. Best fabrics for the Dog Days are moisture-wicking. Linen and cotton are great to beat the heat.
Business Casual Posh Summer Outfit with Seersucker
Seesuckers are a summer classic. They look posh casual when paired with a white shirt and are great for Casual Friday during the Dog Days.
Military Inspired Cotton Shirt Dress
Take inspiration from military uniforms developed for a muggy tropical climate. A cotton military shirt dress is a classic and looks office appropriate except for a corporate style dress code.
Tip: When your office dress code asks for legwear, stockings under a midi dress may be an option to try.
In the Contiguous US, Dog Days Are Sultry
The combination of high temperature and humidity is called sultriness. On these days, the temperature feels much higher than the actual temperature. This higher apparent temperature is due to the combination of actual (dry-bulb) temperature and the high water vapor pressure. Thus, sultriness can increase by increases in ambient temperature, humidity, and solar radiation, as well as changes in wind speed or atmospheric pressure.
Muggy hot summer days are standard in some regions of Texas and the American southwest, in various states on the East Coast, and areas of the subtropical climate in the Southeastern US in summer.
Why Is What to Wear During the Dog Days a Challenge
A typical adult of 5 ft 6 (1.7 m) height and 147 lb (67 kg) has a surface area of 19.2 square feet (1.78 m2) and a density of 980 kg∙m-3. An outfit of long pants and a short-sleeved shirt/blouse covers about 84% of the body area. Under these considerations, the clothing thickness (including underwear plus air layers) amounts to about 0.2 inches (5 mm). According to medical literature, the core vapor pressure of a human body is that of a saline solution with an equivalent relative humidity of about 90%.
At 98.6F (37oC), which is the human blood temperature, the water vapor pressure at saturation amounts 0.628 hPa (mb). Given the 90% relative humidity of the human body, our vapor pressure is about 0.56 hPa (mb). When walking outdoors at 1.4 m/s, the skin surface puts out about 180 J s-1m-2 of heat by transpiration. We also lose latent heat (water vapor) from the lungs when breathing.
Moisture Transfer Thru Clothes
Diffusion thru the fabric pores makes up almost all moisture transfer from the skin to the ambient air or vice versa, depending on the direction of the moisture gradient. Keep in mind that in fabrics, pores are not straight paths like the pores of a mosquito screen. According to the literature, their path lengths are about twice the thickness of the fabric for summer clothes. This means that the fabric has a permeability of 2. The average distance between the skin and summer clothes has a path factor of about 1.5. Body movement increases the clothes’ vapor conduction.
Why Sweat Cools or Not
Not all heat consumed by evaporation of sweat contributes to cooling of the body. Some of the cooling effect is lost to the environment. Thus, the efficiency of sweating amounts to only 59% to 71%. Dripping sweat may further reduce the efficiency of the cooling process, as the dripped sweat doesn’t evaporate on the skin.
Reasons Why Sweating for Increased Cooling Is Limited
Activity, for instance, can increase sweating. The impact of an increase in humidity is less than that of an adiabatic change in moisture. Thus, evaporative cooling always reduces the apparent temperature. However, an active person can only achieve comfort this way at apparent temperatures below 77.5F (25.3oC). At this threshold, a change in water vapor by 10 hPa has the same effect as a temperature change of 3.4F (1.9oC). In cities, adiabatic cooling often serves to modify the local urban climate.
Reasons Why Sweat Can’t Evaporate on Humid, Muggy Days
At high relative humidity under hot conditions, sweat accumulates on the skin, i.e., it fails to cool the body by evaporation. Instead, the sweat forms an insulating water layer that hinders the heat transfer from the body to the ambient air.
The Dog Days of Summer Mean Thermal Heat Stress
Heat stress varies among regions depending on whether extreme moisture or extreme temperature dominates.
The theoretical limit at which humans would die due to heat stress after six hours of exposure is a wet-bulb temperature of 95F (35oC). Here, wet-bulb temperature means that relative humidity is 100% and the air temperature is 95F at the same time. Fortunately, such conditions rarely occur for such a long time.
Why Improving Thermal Comfort During the Dog Days Is Self-Care
Dressing for the Dog Days is not only about the challenge of meeting the HR-approved dress code. It is also a question of self-care. The combination of heat outside and chilly AC inside can put you at risk of catching a cold. Therefore, wear the right fabrics for thermal comfort. Finding rest at night is particularly difficult under humid heat conditions. Getting sleep may require MTS fabric thermal comfort sleepwear and the right bedding. Satin feels cool upon touch.
Wrapping Up the Best Looks for Work during the Dog Days
Set criteria for when to splurge or bargain. Best summer work dresses meet the following criteria
- Wrinkle-resistant fabric
- Moisture-wicking fabric
- Loose, but fitted cut (to avoid sticking when you sweat)
- Breathable fabric
- Sun-protective if you have to spend a lot of time outside (see sun safe business casual outfits for female engineers)
- Meet the office dress code.
Learn what to wear when in How to Dress for Success in Midlife. Buy the book now.
When you are new to the team, check whether the unofficial summer work dress code is more casual than the official work dress code. In other words, take notice whether your most stylish female colleagues go a bit more casual than usual. If so, follow suit.
People experience severe heat stress during the dog days. Due to temperatures above 100F (37.8oC) and high relative humidity, sweat does not evaporate, and hence, provides no cooling.
References
Mölders, N., Kramm, G. (2014) Lectures in Meteorology, Springer, New York.
Mölders, N., 2019. Outdoor Universal Thermal Comfort Index Climatology for Alaska. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, 9, 558-582. doi: 10.4236/acs.2019.94036.
Mölders, N., 2023. Discover the Relation between Fashion, Fabrics, Weather, and Comfort. Amazon Publishing Pros. p. 182.
Photos: G. Kramm
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