An Ode To Summer Style (Despite What Fashion Editors May Say)

For everything and everyone there is a season, and mine is summer. Christmas comes a close second, but the hottest time of year is my headline act in sartorial terms. 

It’s an unpopular opinion to have in fashion; cold-weather dressing is seen as industry prime time. The autumn/winter trends are always the most influential, and September marks the start of the industry’s calendar year. It’s a more civilised endeavour getting dressed in the cold months. There’s no risk of sweat stains, visible bra straps or linen-caused wrinkling. Clothing is more structured, and there’s a certain safety in that. As we pile on the layers, there are simply more clothes to experiment with, which if you love clothes is very appealing. Tailoring, oversized outerwear and sombre colour palettes are also a chicer proposition than flimsy summer dresses and barely-there sandals.

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Rouje spring/summer 2025

In a year where Vogue has decreed ‘chic’ dead (a term so overused it has lost any meaning), I am planting my flag in the ground for the good-time girl that is summer. Part of my reason for loving warm weather style is that I am British and therefore sunshine is rare and fleeting – it arrives usually in April for a startlingly warm two weeks that no one is ready for, a period usually followed by intermittent hail. It arises again in mid-June stretching to the start of September, although knitwear will be needed at some point in the middle. It’s a scarcity model thing; summer is more valuable to me because it is painfully difficult to obtain.

With the exceptions of Kate Moss and Alexa Chung, the British aren’t known for their summer aesthetic prowess. We tend to remove too many clothes as soon as the weakest rays of sunshine reveal themselves. We’re not great with suncream; walk through any London park early evening on a summer’s day and you’ll find a number of us tinged, sometimes scorched, red. I know to other countries gifted with longer, more reliable stints of sunshine, this looks deranged – gaggles of sunburnt Brits wearing very little in 17-degree ‘heat’ – but I love it. For a nation characterised by our cynicism and grumpiness, there is something so incredibly heartening about the way we dress for summer. It’s a show of optimism, a seizing of the moment that is so rare in British culture. We don’t wait for a better time to whip out that summer dress because God knows when that might be. We dress for the summer we long for. 

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Ischia dress, £348, DÔEN

Every summer I lean on the same wardrobe classics, and every year they make me feel lighter – little white dresses, tan sandals, a chunky black pair, a preppy striped shirt and a linen version found in Hydra, denim shorts, tank tops and billowing maxis in airy fabrics. In the office, I like a white shirt-wide-leg airy trouser combination. I find it hard to project professionalism in anything too floaty. This year, I invested in a pair of summer party pants – a cheeringly wallet-friendly, bold botanical printed pair from H&M.

My LWD obsession aside, I embrace colour more when the weather is balmy – Majorelle blues, grassy greens and terracotta reds – and am much more likely to dabble with a different silhouette – an asymmetric neckline or a floor-sweeping number. I am embarrassed by the number of basket bags I own, many of which I have collected from different holidays, all different sizes and shapes. I like a silk or linen scarve tied around my hair, or around one of the handles of my basket bag. I also like the creative challenge that comes with having to make that little dress work when the skies are grey, and the temperature is subpar – what shoes to choose and which jacket to reach for. 

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Barbour x Alexa Pattie Showerproof Parka, £319, Barbour

I suspect the reason so many of us love dressing in the summer is the same reason boho has the power to appeal to even The Row-wearing minimalists. It makes us embrace the freer, playful side of ourselves we remember from our six-week school holiday when summer stretched out for what felt like an eternity. There is a nostalgia to it that reminds us of how we felt not only when we were young and more unencumbered, but also how we felt on that last sun-drenched holiday with the people we love. It enables us to tap into a different side of ourselves that is often buried under layers of clothes and responsibilities in the winter months.

Our duties don’t run away when summer arrives, but they do feel more evenly weighted with fun than usual. Right or wrong, we prioritise happiness more when the temperatures soar. The legendary Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field once told the New York Times that “summer is like physics. Your body opens up when it’s warm. You mentally open up. So the whole philosophy for shopping is to be more outgoing. More daring. More experimental than you would normally be with clothes that cost more. That’s the key. Summer clothes don’t have to cost much. You can have fun and get away with it.” If you really can’t abide boho and any of its feminine offshoots, then it’s easier than ever to find streamlined, heat-ready alternatives thanks to COS, Arket and Massimo Dutti, or in the luxury space at St. Agni, Khaite and Toteme. 

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Cos spring/summer 2012

I’ll dive into knitwear and tailoring in autumn when the season demands, but my heart will always belong to the easy romance of summer style classics. There is nothing that puts a spring in my step like the knowledge that I don’t need a jumper as my date, and nothing that feels better than the lightness of my favourite summer dress. Warm weather dressing is an attitude, and I for one am seizing the moment before the rain descends.