It’s been noted in the Never Underdressed office that I am quite good at summer dressing, which is nice. Not that I’ve got some clever style strategy worked out for the summer months, but I suppose my style, which is at best, feminine (lace trims figure), and at worst subtly slutty (sometimes lace just looks like underwear) does lend itself to hot weather. Outfits that others are naturally drawn to, however, involving perhaps boyish tailoring or a lot of layering, would be compromised. 

For example, I’m not much of a jeans person. I mean, I’ll wear them, perhaps with a camisole or cropped blouse, but taking them out of my style equation when it hots up doesn’t throw my wardrobe into cahoots. 

Instead, I wear a lot of dresses, in particular right now, thin-strapped, super-light slip dresses (with the occasional deviance to jumpsuits of a similar ilk). Seriously, it looks like the mid-90s exploded in my wardrobe.  What’s so special about that? Surely that’s no different from anyone who wears a dress in the summer.  

Well, I’ll tell you what’s different. Firstly, if you’ve been basking in this sunshine like I have, you’ll have got a tan, which is basically like nature’s version of a little black dress, as in, it always looks good, and nothing shows off a bronzed shoulder like a skinny strap. And there’s another thing about skinny straps – they show your bra, which allows you to include some extra, but subtle, detail. I often wear a scarlet silk Stella McCartney bra with a black silk spaghetti-strap jumpsuit, for example, which looks pretty and adds colour, but is still very simple. The same effect can be had by layering a few thin gold necklaces around your neck. 

 

There’s also a lot to be said for a waist-belt. I have an hourglass shape, and without a bit of cinching dresses hang unflatteringly. Belting a dress doesn’t compromise your cool (actual, not figurative), but it does make an outfit that’s actually made of just one thing, look more ‘put together’, as the likes of Lauren Conrad may say.

Lastly, lipstick. Nobody ever looks underdressed in lipstick and it’s certainly not going to make you too hot. Plus, of all the make-up, it has the best high impact: low effort ratio. I almost always wear a bright lipstick, whether classic red, a raspberry pink Laura Mercier one I’ve recently discovered, or a summery orangey shade.

So there you go – the key to good summer dressing: one simple, shoulder-bearing dress (I’m wearing a black Jersey American Apparel one as we speak), tarted up with a couple of accessories (today: snake necklace), a flash of a nice bra and a pout brighter than the sun.