Nooooo! You’ve dared to venture out to an intimate poolside gathering, True Fashionista matching face mask and tote intact when you look down and sure enough, two glistening patches of sweat have appeared on your chest. How do the glam babes in the online fashion mag pics avoid this plague, you wonder, while hurriedly excusing yourself to the powder room to dab. Here are a few fabric ideas to ponder while hovering over the air dryer.
COTTON
It’s a love/hate relationship when it comes to cotton. Let’s just get right to it. Cotton is a natural fiber that allows air to circulate and move freely through the fabric, ensuring airflow that dries out damp areas of the body. It’s also hypoallergenic and won’t irritate the skin. A good quality lightweight cotton also absorbs moisture, allowing you to cool down quickly, and comes in a variety of styles and colors. However…as you are well aware, cotton isn’t the strongest fabric, stains easily, is prone to shrinking and wrinkles, and its natural fibers tend to wear down faster. Oh, and just so you know (hopefully you won’t ever have to find out the hard way), cotton will burn as opposed to melting like, say, polyester. On the whole, we’d say cotton can be your True Fashionista summer friend. Stick to lighter colors as to better disguise the sweat patches, should they appear.
LINEN
How about linen for summer? This loosely woven, natural fiber allows heat to escape, absorbs moisture and dries quickly. However, it tends to wrinkle easily. OK, so easily it’s just a losing battle, giving linen that cool, “casually wrinkled” look that is somehow purely acceptable because hey, linen. History of Clothing tells us that linen textiles are some of the oldest in the world, with a history dating back many thousands of years when the Egyptians were wearing it. They also used it for mummification purposes. Linen even gets a mention in the Bible, indicating that angels wear it, so there are many reasons to wear it. The downside? Since the fibers don’t stretch, the fabric will actually break if it is folded and ironed at the same place consistently.
SILK
Are you picturing that soft, airy silky feeling too? You know silk is made from worms, right? Yeah that doesn’t stop us either. This True Fashionista fabric is a hit in hot places, thanks to its construction by sericulture, which is the term used to describe the process of gathering the silkworms and harvesting the cocoon to collect the materials. And thank you to Elle UK for that bit of science. Are there many fabrics that both keep you warm in winter AND luxuriously comfortable in summer? Silk is also a pretty durable fabric and hypoallergenic as well. Silk is a great choice to sleep in, be it camping underneath a starry sky or on staycation.
CHAMBRAY
Chambray is similar to denim, made with a colored yarn. What a dream come true; you get the look of denim without the sweat factor. Chambray is lightweight and the typically darker shades absorb the majority of sweat so that is a win right there. Chambray also commonly comes in a higher thread count, which translates into something much more breathable. Keyhole backs, frilly ruffles, frayed edges and embroidery are also quite common in chambray clothing, share the color experts at Keyhole. More and more designers are these days like Lilly Pulitzer, are incorporating chambray into their lines.
POLYESTER
Polyester has its place, to be sure. It’s strong, flexible, stain resistant, dries quickly and resists wrinkles. As far as summer goes, it also has moisture-wicking qualities. The downside is its lack of breathability, basically trapping you in a pool of sweat and stick to your perspiring skin wherever it touches. As if you didn’t have enough issues with that polyester shirt already.
Stick with any of the other above fabrics, and your summer wardrobe should do just fine for any and all Zoom calls or the occasional shopping excursion, if you dare. Put on that mask and/or face shield and come on in to True Fashionistas to find summer outfit ideas in an array of lovely, comfortable fabrics, or shop with us online.