The working from home wardrobe – summer

In the winter we home workers pile on the layers for warmth, but what do you wear to keep cool in the summer?

Do you have one or two garments in your working from home wardrobe that you wear all the time, washing and drying them at night so you can put them on again next morning?

I have a number of linen pieces I wear constantly when it’s hot, until they literally wear out, in fact. I can’t bear synthetics when it’s warm.

One of my favourite bloggers, Alison Walsh of That’s Not My Age, writes for women who are no longer mere slips of girls, and don’t want to pretend they are.

Her post How to look chic in the heat recommends light, loose clothing in natural fabrics like cotton, silk and linen, worn with flat leather sandals. So nice to read my personal choices are approved by the former editor of a fashion magazine!

Another of her posts, on over-sized shirts, has reminded me about a much-washed dark blue linen shirt languishing in the wardrobe for many seasons, which I’ve dug out to wear with khaki cropped trousers when it gets a bit cooler.

An excellent purchase earlier in the summer was a vintage style cotton dress patterned with apples by Emily and Fin (see above). I think of it as my Betty Draper dress. I never normally wear browns and oranges, but somehow I felt this worked OK with my silver hair and it’s nice to have a change.

It came from Boho, a fantastic little boutique on Catherine Hill here in Frome, where the owner has an excellent eye for unusual pieces at reasonable prices. There’s also a branch in Broad Street in Bath.

I rarely wear dresses because being short and curvy it’s hard to find something that fits properly. This retro style, from the days before it became a fashion crime to actually have boobs, goes in and out in all the right places. (Maybe I should go more girly, as we are well-endowed for vintage in Frome, having Deadly is the Female just up the same hill, the independent shop that hit the national news earlier this year when Nigella became a customer).

Anyway it’s a revelation to throw on one garment that doesn’t need matching with something else and that lets the air circulate because there’s no tight waistband or top tucked in.

Emma Windsor tweeted yesterday that her working from home wardrobe might be running out of clean clothes, as it’s too hot to iron. I’ve been doing a few pieces every morning, standing by an open window to get the benefit of the breeze. It’s the only time I can bear to put the iron on. I only ever iron outerwear anyway, and I’m a great believer in the smoothing power of body heat!

I must have washed and line-dried every scrap of fabric in the house, scouring the wardrobes, drawers, airing cupboard etc, to take advantage of this quick-drying weather. I think there are just two cushion covers left if I can bear to tackle the feather storm that will blow up as soon as I unzip them.

I’ve also been fighting the battle against moths by sticking woolly jumpers, scarves and gloves out on the line. Moths like to chomp your best fabrics when they’re folded up away in the dark, so getting your wools, silks and cashmeres out into sunlight and air is supposed to discourage the little blighters.

How does the heat change your working from home wardrobe? What are your essential summer pieces? And have you snapped up any sale bargains?