Dressing to stay cool in hot Summer weather is all very well, but what happens when you spend all or part of your day in indoor air conditioning? Gentle A/C can feel refreshing, especially when it’s sticky and humid outside. But most of the time A/C is set too cold for my liking and I freeze in a matter of minutes if I’m not appropriately wrapped up.

I have clients whose offices are colder in the Summer than they are in the Winter. In this case we build their Summer work wardrobes around warmer layers like non-seasonal wools and blended fabrications, closed shoes, cropped trousers, sleeved tops, camisoles, lightweight knitwear and jackets. Wearing sandals, dresses, skirts, and tops that cannot be layered with jackets are a bad idea. Clients usually don’t want to wear hosiery in the Summertime, so that’s why we stick to trousers. They leave their jackets off in the car, and turn up the A/C because the rest of their outfit is still quite warm. They change into breezy clothes when they get back home (where there is usually no A/C). 

Then there’s the option of wearing breezy Summer clothes for the outside heat, but bringing along a cardigan, jacket or wrap for cool indoor air conditioning. This is a better option if you’re wafting in and out of A/C during the day, which makes the overall temperature more moderate. Most people tend to be fine combatting air conditioning in this way. They would rather feel a little chilly in the A/C than feel hot outside. 

I prefer to dress too warmly for the outside temperature to ensure that I’m comfortable indoors. It’s a challenge when dressing for places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Las Vegas in the Summertime because of the VAST differences between the indoor and outdoor temperatures. Hot, hot, hot outside, and absolutely arctic inside. I cannot stand it! I would rather feel too warm than too cold, so I wrap up more than most on a hot day when I know I’ll be in air conditioning for at least a couple of hours. 

Over to you. Do you alter what you wear on a hot day when you know you’ll be in cold air conditioning for part of the day? Or does a light topper over your breezy outfit do the trick. Or perhaps you don’t feel the negative effects of too cold air conditioning at all.