Outfit Of The Week 6/14/26 – 6/20/26
This week’s edition of “OOTW” isn’t really a specific outfit. It’s more like an example of how I create easy outfits during the warm-weather months.
During the summer, you’ll definitely see me in various combinations of these shirts and pants.
Now, summer is when a lot of guys kind of drop the ball with their wardrobes. Fall and winter are easy for menswear, since one can layer fun things like sweaters, sport coats, and jackets of all kinds. Summer, on the other hand is quite literally much more “stripped down”.
When it’s 90 degrees it’s tempting to just throw on a t-shirt and shorts and be done with it.
But dressing well in summer is much easier than a lot of guys make it out to be. I have written before about this exact topic.
One of the issues men face when trying to dress well in summer is that fabrics like linen need to be ironed when they come out of the dryer. That can be a pretty hefty obstacle for us busy dads.
Now, you can certainly resort to polo shirts in the summer, which I do often. But it’s nice to pepper your summer shirt rotation with some nicer button-front sport shirts.
My strategy for the summer is to have a handful of shirts hanging in my closet that are ready-to-go. It means I can grab one as easily as I could a t-shirt, but I look much more put-together.
They key here is to spend about 15 minutes ironing a half-dozen shirts. The shirts you see here can last me a few weeks, since I usually wear them more than once. At the end of the day, I just hang it back up and I don’t have to iron it before I wear it again. Now, if you get all sweaty then obviously that shirt will be pulled from the rotation and washed. But I find that even in summer, I might get hot and a little sweaty, but nothing that hanging up and airing out for a few days can’t fix.
You’ll notice that my summer shirts are of various patterns and fabrics. It’s important for men to wear colors, as I have noted here.
In addition to the shirts, my go-to pants in the summer are either my jeans or a pair of khaki chinos. Chinos can be worn in any instance you’d normally wear jeans.
My shoes in the summer are usually a pair of boat shoes. If I am doing something more robust than bumming around with the kids (like hiking) then I’ll wear my heavier boots.
My point with this article is that it’s easy to look good in the summer. Don’t overthink it. Sure, some people might think it’s boring, but you can get a ton of mileage out of a few shirts and a couple pairs of pants.
And all it takes is a few minutes! Again, ironing these shirts did not take me long and now I am good to go for a while.
A lot of upping your style game is removing the impediments to dressing well. Now that I have some shirts at the ready, I can look fairly presentable as quickly as I can get ready for the gym. The “dressing well takes too long” argument is out the window.
Next week I will feature what I plan to wear for Father’s Day!
Have a wonderful weekend!
