MFMDressing well when you’re 40 and in summer may not be so simple. Getting ready for what you want to wear in summer is simple. In other words: no excuses. Sunglasses, shorts and sandals, here’s how to wear it well in the warmer weather. So what DO you wear in summer, it’s time to build a solid foundation, and the secret to having a great wardrobe is versatility in perhaps your most basic pieces. That really doesn’t mean by dressing in business casual or going overboard with accessories to heighten your daily look. It’s all about investing in key pieces you can build on.
Summer does not in fact make you invisible, you need a capsule of key clothes that you can swap in any rotation and can be worn seamlessly with what you already have hanging in your wardrobe. You can choose a quality shirt and buy it in several different colours and patterns, added with jeans, chinos, a fine gauge sweater and unstructured jackets and now you have ten outfits to wear. Try linen shirts as an alternative to cotton, blue or beige are great summer colours as with a white linen grandad shirt, (but don’t spill anything on the front), slightly oversized and even linen tie front trousers with a pair of Birkenstock sandals, pressed cotton trousers in stone with a cuff and a crease. With your shirts do the Italian roll, and that means folding your shirt sleeves a couple of times and keeping it neat.
For the evenings when it may get chilly or you need a more formal look, go for a blazer or merino wool cardigan and your options will increase when you add these sweaters and jackets to the mix, so ignore trends and stick to classics. Fads will come and go but the classic look is always in style and will make you look as if you care about what you’re wearing and not just chucked anything on, and you’ve evolved right past fast fashion or even caring about what every other guy has on.
Don’t bare your chest, your first two buttons are fine undone, but showing most of your chest will give the wrong impression. And also as a general rule of thumb, deep V neck T-shirts should be left back in the days when you were in your early teens. If you want to wear shoes and not sandals, go for pristine white sneakers, canvas espadrilles, or suede loafers, and oh yes, you can keep the boat shoes.
Basically dress like an Italian.