Prioritize natural materials in summer
Synthetic materials are made of plastic, so they don't really help with breathability. Fabrics like polyester tend to make you feel even hotter and sweat more.
If possible, it's better to dress in fabrics made from natural materials. To do this, simply check the labels of the clothes you buy.
The most common natural textile materials are cotton, wool, silk, and linen.
Cotton and linen are thermoregulating materials, meaning they keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. Natural fibers have high moisture absorption capacities!
Wool is also thermoregulating and therefore doesn't feel as warm as one might think in summer, especially if it's thin and openwork. In fact, the first swimsuits ever created were made of wool!
It's not always easy to find clothes made entirely of natural materials. Moreover, when they are, they are less affordable. That's why we often encounter blends. In such cases, it's better to prioritize compositions where the percentage of natural materials is higher than that of synthetic materials.
Of course, natural or not, you can create pieces that are more or less warm. Even with cotton, you can find thick fleece sweaters as well as light crop tops!
But obviously, the thick sweater option, even if made from a thermoregulating material, won't be very suitable for summer…
Natural materials still have some drawbacks
I would nevertheless add to all this that even when opting for natural materials with fine weaves best suited for summer heat, nothing is perfect. We will probably never find THE ideal material.
For example, cotton absorbs sweat so well that it takes a long time to dry, and feeling damp for hours is not necessarily the best feeling. Also, it's a material that tends to yellow over time.
Silk, while light and not warm, reacts poorly to humidity over time and risks degrading if too often exposed to a lot of perspiration.
In any case, natural materials have the advantage of retaining odors much less than synthetic materials, so despite their minor drawbacks, you'll always be better off with them than with synthetics.
In what cases should you wear synthetic materials in summer?
Now, in my opinion, synthetic materials should not be completely ruled out.
It is possible to turn to them if the garment they compose is not too close to the body and not too closed. The more air that passes between the skin and the garment, the more odors and heat are avoided.
Technical materials are also becoming increasingly popular, promising to keep you dry and smelling fresh.
These technical materials are synthetic, but if they don't react like a simple polyester fabric, it's simply because they also contain chemical agents that destroy the odor-causing bacteria that develop during the sweating process.
The thing is, these chemical agents disappear with repeated washing and are therefore not very effective in the long run.
Moreover, while it destroys bacteria, it doesn't select them, and can therefore also destroy good bacteria. This is not highly recommended for the proper functioning of the immune system.
So, I would advise against overusing these materials!
What about artificial materials?
Finally, there are artificial materials, which are not the same as synthetic materials.
A synthetic material is obtained from petroleum, while a natural material is found as it is in nature (in the form of fiber that is then used to form threads and weave everything together).
Artificial materials are neither one nor the other. They are not found as they are in nature, but they do not come from petroleum.
Artificial fibers are chemically created from several natural elements. For example, an artificial textile material can be composed of a mixture of wood, leaves, twigs... All of these, put together, serve to create a paste from which the threads will then be made to weave the garment.
Among these artificial materials are viscose, modal, and lyocell.
Artificial materials often produce thin, light, and breathable fabrics. They are not as thermoregulating as the natural materials mentioned above, but they remain much more pleasant to wear in summer than synthetic materials.
Avoid black in summer
Finally, beyond the materials themselves, there are also certain shades that are best avoided during hot weather, especially darker ones.
There's a well-known rule that says you should avoid black in the middle of summer. Black indeed absorbs light and therefore light energy, which then turns into heat.
To find out why, despite everything, the desert Bedouins are still dressed all in black, I recommend reading this article from Pour la Science, which provides very interesting explanations on the subject.
To summarize, what's important to remember from all of this is that in summer, you should avoid synthetic materials as much as possible and opt for looser and less covering cuts than usual.
I hope this reminder and these explanations will make the summer more pleasant for those who have read me.
See you in autumn, black!